Getty Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and Andre Iguodala, then of the Golden State Warriors.
Fans love to get into debates about the best scorers in the NBA, and Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green may have put an end to one of the biggest ones.
Carmelo Anthony and Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant are among the best scorers in NBA history, and Green was asked who thinks the better out of the two is, assuming both are in their prime.
It might be easy to say Durant, especially considering he’s still putting up big numbers while Anthony is playing a sixth man role, but Green made a bold state.
Speaking on “The Draymond Green Show,” the Warriors forward stated he believes Anthony is the better pure scorer than his former teammate Durant.
Carmelo Over KD
In their prime, who was the better scorer: @carmeloanthony or @KDTrey5?
@Money23Green gives his take: t.co/9Crbjd3bY8
Green admits it was a tough decision to make, but he ultimately decided to go with Anthony, and he says the reasoning for it was because of a call he got from the referees.
“I’m gonna go with Melo,” he said. “The reason I’m gonna go with Melo is actually this, it’s specific. We were playing against [the New York Knicks] at the Garden, it had to be my first or second year in the league. And Melo caught the ball in the post and faced up on me, put his shoulder into my chest, I may have fouled him a little bit, maybe not, and he went through my chest, and I got the stop. He missed. I maybe fouled him, maybe not.”
It’s what happened after that is why he believes Anthony is considered the better scorer.
“He turned around to the referee, ‘call the f**king foul,’ and we go back down the court,” Green continued. “Come back down, he did the exact same move the next play. And made the referee call the foul. And the reason why that’s such a big deal to me is because as a scorer you go into slumps, you have bad shooting nights, and the one thing that can break scorer’s slumps can be a free throw. And just knowing Melo can get to the free throw like that, that’s why I’m gonna pick Melo.”
Tough Choice
In the end, Green does admit that it really could go either way in a debate.
“That’s a pick em, for real,” he said. “Can you go wrong with either one? I don’t think so.”
Because of that, it should come as no surprise that Durant’s trade request is looming over the whole league because whoever can make a trade for him would become a title contender. Even though he’ll be 34 by the time the next season begins, there’s not a team out there who wouldn’t be better by acquiring him, including the Warriors.
With Durant handing the Nets an ultimatum, it seems like a move could be on the horizon. The forward has cast a wider net by adding both the Celtics and 76ers to his preferred landing spots along with the Heat and Suns. The Nets don’t have to play by those rules, however, so many teams still have a shot.
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