Getty Kevin Durant and LeBron James
Phoenix Suns small forward Kevin Durant talked about Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James during a media session with reporters on April 4.
Durant and James will face each other on April 7 for the first time since December 25, 2018, when the Suns take on the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.
“It’s been amazing,” Durant said about competing against James. “Just being in the league the same time as him. Just somebody whose a ultimate competitor. Somebody that you inspired by. … It’s always been a mutual respect amongst us two. It’s always been great battles when we play against each other.”
“I was surprised.”
Kevin Durant on having not played against LeBron James since 2018.
Durant and James are two of the most distinguished players in NBA history. The two legends have combined to win five regular-season MVPs, six titles and six Finals MVPs. KD and LeBron will both be future Hall of Famers one day.
Durant has a 6-15 record versus James in his career. However, the Suns swingman is 2-1 against the Lakers forward in the NBA Finals.
Kevin Durant Name-Drops Michael Jordan & LeBron James
On the latest episode of his podcast named “The ETCs,” Durant name-dropped James and Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan. Durant spoke about the mindset you have to have when you’re going up against stars like Jordan and James.
“It’s an appropriate fear that you have for your opponents, knowing that if you aren’t locked in, this is the NBA. We’re all great players. Somebody can go off and kill you tonight So let me lock in and be ready. That’s the type of fear that I’m thinking about,” Durant said. “Like when you’re going against the best players, the Michael Jordans, the LeBron James, of course you feel you know that you’re getting into some sh*t tonight, but if you’re locked in and ready for it and you’re prepared for it, I won’t say you’re scared, but you know it can go either way. So you just got your head on a swivel, but I wouldn’t say anybody is like fearful of the challenge, don’t want to play, ducking guys for the night, call in with an injury. That type of stuff I don’t see much of.”
Durant’s message came after his podcast host, Eddie Gonzalez, brought up the topic of players being scared to go up against superstars. Former NBA guard Mario Chalmers, who played with James on the Miami Heat, said on March 18 that nobody fears LeBron.
“Nobody fears Bron,” Chalmers said on the In Shambles Podcast. “Nobody’s like, ‘Damn, I gotta go play against Bron tonight.’ Nobody said that. I don’t know why because I seen people be scared when they actually line up to him, but they’re not scared thinking about that matchup.”
LeBron James: ‘Wherever We End Up, That’s Where We End Up’
The Lakers are in seventh place in the Western Conference standings. They can capture the sixth seed and avoid the play-in tournament by winning their last two games of the season combined with the Golden State Warriors going 1-1.
“Wherever we end up, that’s where we end up,” James said on April 5. “It’s been like four or five seasons in one for us. We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘This is what we need to do. This is where we’re going to be.’ We need to still continue to play good basketball.”
The Lakers face the Suns and Utah Jazz to close out the regular season.