Hoops Habit
Fansided

Title Needed for Kevin Durant to Ever be Known as NBA’s Best Player

By Andrew Kennedy

Feb 19, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) brings the ball up the court against the Dallas Mavericks during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 19, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) brings the ball up the court against the Dallas Mavericks during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Kevin Durant made headlines this month in one of the only ways in which an NBA player can. He said something to the media and what he said was that he is that he thinks he’s the best player in the world.

This isn’t an article about whether or not Durant should say something like that. I get it, LeBron James still plays and deserves that title, but professional athletes are confident and say things like this. Even James Harden said it once.

It is odd timing now coming off a 2014-15 season in which KD missed 55 games. He had three foot surgeries over an approximately six-month span. The NBA world, at this point, is just hoping he can play a full season as opposed to debating if he is the best player in the league or not.

But what would it take for Durant to gain the popular vote as the best player in the world?

ALSO ON HOOPSHABIT: 50 Greatest NBA Players Not in the Hall of Fame

LeBron certainly holds that title now, and he has for awhile. It’s so obvious, really, that he even said he was after a loss in the NBA Finals. Talk about odd timing to bring that up.

With Durant out of the picture, he hasn’t been in the discussion and probably rightfully so. Durant’s absence has been for so long that he may have even lost the title of LeBron’s heir to the throne as the best player in the world. A fantastic season by Anthony Davis has more NBA fans bringing his name up as who will replace LeBron eventually as the best player in the league. Don’t think Durant hasn’t noticed. Remember this Sports Illustrated cover?

But back on Durant overtaking LeBron. A big advantage for KD in this race to the top is LeBron beginning to decline. We’re finally starting to see the clock tick on LeBron, at least statistically. He’s no longer the beast for 82 games and every game in the playoffs. Remember he took a week off last season and overall saw his numbers dip a tad.

A tad may be all Durant needs if he is able to return to his MVP season’s form. LeBron was always and has always been superior when it came to the numbers. It seemed for a long time if Durant was going to dethrone LeBron, it would be narrative helping carry him past. But in that 2013-14 MVP season, Durant for the first time in his career put up better numbers than LeBron. Durant ended a 6-year streak for LeBron in which he led the league in PER. And Durant’s win shares/48 minutes that year was the 13th best of all-time.

That season, I think, proved that production-wise Durant has what it takes to be considered the best player in the league, and maybe one of the best ever. KD isn’t a case like Kobe Bryant where you get a lot of bad with his production like a low shooting percentage. Durant even got his assists up pretty high for a small forward and he’s always been one of the best rebounding small forwards. He’s not a liability on defense either and is actually one of the Thunder’s best on that end.

What’s left? Winning. That’s always what’s left.

Even LeBron needed to win before we could crown him. Before that 2012 title, we were busy making excuses for guys like Kobe and even a young Durant that they might be better than LeBron. Like something was broken with LeBron, on the inside and almost invisible, that prevented him from winning it all.

Durant has thus far avoided that kind of irrational criticism. Maybe going too far with LeBron made it easier to give KD a break. Or maybe it’s playing during LeBron’s prime or just the fact that KD can be so likable.

But still, to take that next step and get the recognition as the best player in the world, a championship is probably the only way for KD.

Whether that’s fair or not is another debate. In the NBA, we remember and count titles like no other sport. That’s just a reality.

And ultimately, it’s a credit to what Durant has already accomplished that this is all that’s left. We’ve seen he’s capable of one of the most dominant statistical regular seasons in NBA history. If he stays healthy for most of the rest of his career, he has a good shot at going down as one of, if not the all-time leading scorers. And he’s helped lead teams to great regular season win totals even when dealing with some major injuries.

Winning a title isn’t all it takes. No one is saying Stephen Curry is the best player in the world right now. But winning is certainly a necessary ingredient, and the only one missing for Durant.

Next: The 30 Best Small Forwards of All-Time

More from Hoops Habit

Home/Oklahoma City Thunder