NBA Legend Rips Durant, Says KD Not Best Player on Warriors Title Teams

Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors

Getty Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after sustaining an injury during the second quarter against the Toronto Raptors during Game Five of the 2019 NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena on June 10, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Charles Barkley has heard enough from Kevin Durant, the former Golden State Warriors forward who left town three years ago to what has been, thus far, a disastrous result.

Barkley, a former league MVP and current NBA analyst on TNT, lit into Durant on that network’s Sunday, April 24 edition of “Inside The NBA.” Barkley’s comments came during a discussion around Durant’s current team, the Brooklyn Nets, trailing the Boston Celtics 3-0 heading into Game 4 of that first-round series Monday night.

Further conversational context involved Durant’s definition as clearly the No. 1 option on both his Nets team, as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder before joining the Warriors for the 2016-17 season, but arguably falling short of best player status in Golden State. It was with the Warriors that Durant claimed both of his championship rings and three of his four career trips to the NBA Finals.

Clutch Points posted a video clip of Barkley’s comments via Twitter on Sunday.

“All these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about ‘you a champion,'” Barkley said. “If you’re riding the bus, I don’t want to hear it.”

Co-host Kenny Smith caught Barkley’s drift and pushed back on Durant being the best player on the team during his time with the Warriors.

“You don’t think [Kevin Durant] was the best player on the Warriors?” Smith asked incredulously.

“No, I do not,” Barkley responded.

“He was the best player,” Smith retorted.

“He got MVP [of the NBA Finals], he wasn’t the best player,” Barkley pushed back. “[Andre] Iguodala wasn’t the best player. He got MVP.”

The latest Warriors news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Warriors newsletter here!


History Will Regard Curry as Warriors’ Leader, Best Player

Kevin Durant Stephen Curry

GettyStephen Curry (left) and Kevin Durant (right) of the Golden State Warriors on the court during a 2019 playoff game against the LA Clippers.

Statistically, there is no argument against Durant as the superior player to Curry during the Warriors’ three-year run from 2016-19, during which they appeared in three straight NBA Finals and won two titles.

Durant averaged 29.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists across 48 total playoff contests with Golden State, per StatMuse. Curry posted averages of 27.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists over 54 playoff games during the same three-year run, also according to StatMuse.

It was Durant who was named NBA Finals MVP in both 2016-17 and 2017-18, the two seasons the team won the title while he and Curry played as a duo alongside Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The next year, Durant suffered a torn achilles tendon against the Toronto Raptors during the NBA Finals, which is considered the primary reason the Warriors failed to complete a three-peat.

However, as Barkley pointed out, the Warriors were already champions before Durant arrived. Golden State had earned trips to two consecutive NBA Finals before Durant left OKC to join a team that had just reeled off the best regular season record in league history (73-9).

Any way one chooses to slice it, Durant needed the Warriors to achieve ultimate success more than the Warriors needed Durant. And Curry is widely regarded as unselfishly having taken a backseat to Durant offensively across their three years together to make the chemistry work. Golden State was already Curry’s team and the Bay Area already his town(s) before he made personal sacrifices to bring them all more success.

Not to mention, Curry still showed up during those playoff runs, which likely don’t produce the same level of overall success if he isn’t part of the team. As such, Durant was never going to surpass Curry in the eyes of Dubs’ fans or many NBA analysts, Barkley included, no matter what he did. The board was already set, the game already played and Curry already declared its victor.


Durant’s Time With Nets Validates Barkley’s Opinion

Kyrie Celtics

Getty ImagesKevin Durant (left) and Kyrie Irving (right) of the Brooklyn Nets look on during the final seconds of their 109-103 loss against the Boston Celtics during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Barclays Center.

Durant’s lack of postseason success and inability to overcome the juggernaut that was the Warriors before he came to Golden State adds some credence to Barkley’s assessment of him in comparison to Curry. Durant’s lack of postseason success since then perhaps provides even more.

Durant left the Warriors to create a team in his own image with the Nets in 2019-20, bringing with him guard Kyrie Irving and adding James Harden the following year. Durant missed the first campaign due to the injury he had suffered against the Raptors the postseason before. He fell short the following year, losing to the eventual champion Milwuakee Bucks in the second round after injuries hobbled Harden and sidelined Irving.

A tumultuous season in 2021-22 saw Harden traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for the absentee Ben Simmons and a handful of other players not prominent enough to move the championship needle. Meanwhile, Irving missed much of the year after refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, which kept him out of most of the Nets’ home games.

Now, Durant and the Nets sit on the precipice of being swept by Jason Tatum and the Celtics, the only team to go winless in the 2022 NBA Playoffs if they happen to lose Monday night. The fall for Durant from his days with the Warriors has been as swift as it has been embarrassing, while Curry’s return to the lineup in Golden State has put the Dubs in position to potentially win the Western Conference and return to the Finals after three injury-plagued regular seasons.

If Curry and company return to the promised land and claim their fourth title during this era of Warriors basketball, it will cement forever the argument of who mattered more to Golden State’s success, Durant or Curry — assuming that debate has not already been decided, as Barkley clearly believes it has.

Read More
,