'What haven't I done?' Should Kevin Durant be in GOAT conversation?
Michael Jordan struggled a decade ago to answer the hottest NBA question at the time – Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?
After a pause or two, Jordan blurted out, “Kevin Durant,” and chuckled a little bit.
This was before Durant won an NBA MVP or championship, but after Jordan picked Bryant because he had a 5-1 lead in titles over James at the time. Ahmad Rashad asked him about Durant.
“He’s coming,” Jordan said. “You talk about these two and you battling who’s the best and Kevin Durant is going to sneak through the backdoor.”
Durant has since won a regular season MVP, two NBA championships, two finals MVPs, two more Olympic gold medals to give him three and was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team.
Arguably the game’s purest scorer ever being he’s essentially a 7-footer who can score on all three levels and play above the rim, Durant is 10th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, having played in fewer games than the nine players ahead of him.
He's on pace to pass Carmelo Anthony and Shaquille O'Neal this season. Durant is only 723 points behind O'Neal for eighth and trails Anthony by 416 points, but has played in 187 fewer games than O'Neal and 240 fewer than Anthony.
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Averaging 28.9 points in his 17th NBA season, Durant would pass O'Neal and Anthony in 26 or so games.
Durant also has scored more points than anyone to suit up for Team USA in the Olympics.
'What haven't I done?'
However, James now has four NBA titles, is the league’s all-time leading scorer and put himself in a position to where he and Jordan are the only two really in the GOAT conversation.
Some have asked, when did James surpass Bryant?
Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who won three titles with Bryant, asked a few weeks ago if Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who is considered the greatest shooter ever, should be in the GOAT debate.
Guess who's never really been in it, even though Jordan, the one who is widely viewed as the greatest of all time, said he was on his way before the major awards and championships?
Durant.
Why?
“Because I went to the Warriors,” Durant said in an exclusive interview with The Republic last week. “Why shouldn’t I be in that? That’s the question you should ask. Why not? What haven’t I done?”
July 7, 2016
Durant believes the narrative changed on him when he left Oklahoma City for Golden State after the Warriors beat the Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference finals in seven games, after OKC was leading, 3-1.
Durant shot just 10-of-31 for 29 points in a Game 6 home game the Thunder lost, 108-101.
OKC lost Game 7 in Oakland, 96-88, but that Game 6 that turned out to be Durant’s last home game ever still leaves Thunder fans ill – and some still can’t forgive him for that performance.
He went from being viewed as one of the game’s best players on a championship contender that took the league by storm to someone who left to join a team that just won an NBA-record 73 games the previous season and eliminated his Thunder. He signed with the Warriors on July 7 of that year.
Russell Westbrook is more revered in OKC than Durant, but Durant was the centerpiece of that team built by Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Like Jordan in Chicago and James in Cleveland, Durant was the start of a franchise rise.
Got the better of the kid from Akron
The 73-win Warriors fell to Cleveland in the 2016 finals in seven.
Durant’s arrival the next season made the Warriors essentially unbeatable, as evidence by them winning back-to-back championships and losing just once in two finals to James and the Cavaliers.
The Cavs went from winning their first ever NBA title with the kid from Akron leading the way to having no chance against the Warriors even with James putting up historic postseason numbers. He averaged a 30-point triple-double in the 2017 finals, but Durant, Curry and the Warriors took them down in five.
A year later, James averaged 34 points, 10 assists and 8.5 rebounds, but got swept in the 2018 finals the Warriors led by Durant, who won his second straight finals MVP.
Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists in the 2017 finals, 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and 7.5 assists in the 2018 finals – and hit dagger 3s in Game 3 of each of those finals.
2017: Down two with under a minute remaining, Durant gets the rebound, pushes the ball up and drains a 3 over James to give Golden State a 114-113 lead with 45.3 seconds left. The Warriors won, 118-113, to take a 3-0 series lead.
2018: Up three with under a minute remaining, Durant pulls up from 33 feet out and connects with 49.8 seconds left in Golden State’s 110-102 win.
The Warriors took a 3-0 series lead as Durant scored 43 points on 15-of-23 shooting, hitting 6-of-9 from 3, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out seven assists.
The other four starters – Draymond Green, JaVale McGee, Klay Thompson and Curry – combined for 41 points on 16-of-42 shooting, hitting just 3-of-17 from, 14 rebounds and 17 assists.
So if Durant got the better of James on the biggest stage, twice, again, why isn’t Durant in the GOAT conversation?
Changed the course of history
Had the Warriors stayed pat, James may very well have won one of those finals, if not two, and really make that GOAT conversation heated.
Durant pressed pause on that James momentum at the time, but it has since recharged because James won it all in the 2020 bubble with the Lakers and passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA all-time scoring title.
James has four regular season MVPs, four championship and four finals MVPs, but won his first two on a super team himself in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Curry has two regular season MVPs and four titles, but two came with Durant to take the Warriors from building a great team through the draft and winning a championship in 2015 to becoming a dynasty.
If Durant doesn’t go down with the Achilles injury in the 2019 finals against Toronto and the Warriors take down the Raptors, he joins Jordan and Bryant in that rare three-peat multiverse.
Lost in Brooklyn with Irving and Harden
He instead left Golden State for Brooklyn in pairing up with Kyrie Irving and James Harden after sitting out 2019-20 season, returning from an achilles injury. That trio didn’t win a championship in two seasons, split like a grilled cheese sandwich and viewed as one of the biggest failures for such a talented group even though they only played 16 games together.
Now, Durant is in his first full season in Phoenix with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, with injuries limiting them to just 10 games together so far.
Phoenix moved Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and a pick swap to the Nets right before last season’s trade deadline for Durant and T.J. Warren, who isn’t in the NBA right now.
The Suns came into the season as a championship contender, haven’t played up to those expectations so far, but has nearly half a season to figure out it out for the playoffs.
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Having MVP season in Phoenix
Durant is having an MVP-caliber year – at age 35.
Fifth in the NBA in scoring on 52.5% shooting, Durant is fourth in 3-point shooting on a career-best 46.6% going into Sunday’s game versus Indiana. He also averaging 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists and has been the Suns' best defender.
He probably won’t add a second MVP as Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic are battling again for the award, but remember, Bryant only won the award once, too. Should’ve won it more than once, but still.
If the Suns somehow figure it all out and win their first NBA championship, Durant will be the main reason it happens.
Booker is the franchise player, Beal can still get buckets and new team owner Mat Ishbia spent the dollars and made the moves to put this team together, but Durant is the team’s best overall player.
Can leading Suns to championship change Durant narrative?
The Suns were 30-27 and far from a championship contender before that blockbuster trade.
Durant is in the second of a four-year, $194.2-million contract. Not sure how long Durant can continue to play at this level, but he’s still one of the game’s best players.
Say the Suns win their first championship with him and tack on another one in these three seasons with Durant being the first or second-best player – and prevent James and Curry from adding to their totals.
Jordan six, Bryant five, James, Curry four – and Durant with three or four?
Will that finally put Durant in the GOAT conversation or will the move to Golden State remain the driving force to keep him out of it – or should he already be in it anyway?
Now let THAT debate begin.
Have an opinion about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will title with Phoenix Suns put Kevin Durant in GOAT debate?
