NBA: It’s Time For Kevin Durant To Heed Kobe Bryant’s Advice
Kobe Bryant to Kevin Durant: ‘Be the greatest.’ It’s time for Durant to do his best Kobe impression and listen.
Kevin Durant is one of the greatest players of the modern era. Kobe Bryant is one of the most iconic athletes in the history of professional sports—NBA or otherwise.
Thus, when one takes time out to praise and motivate the other, it’s worth exploring.
Bryant and Durant met on Wednesday in their second of four clashes in 2015-16. The two traded shoes after the showdown, but that wasn’t the only early Christmas present that the 37-year-old Bryant gave to the 27-year-old Durant.
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According to Serena Winters of Lakers Nation, Bryant’s gift to Durant was a brief and powerful message: “Be the greatest.”
It’s time for Durant to take Bryant’s advice.
Durant has been on the cusp of being the best player in the world for the better part of five seasons. Stephen Curry has since emerged as LeBron James‘ top competition, which has left Durant as something of an afterthought in said discussion.
Not only can Durant reclaim his place as a top-two player, but he has the potential to overtake both Curry and James for the No. 1 spot. Already a legend on the all-time scale, what’s next for Durant is the ultimate test.
The question is, will he take Bryant’s advice and sacrifice modesty for greatness?
Already a Legend, Part I
It may seem premature in the eyes of the jaded, but Kevin Durant is already an NBA legend. He’s going to the Hall of Fame, and no matter how hard people try to fight it, their efforts will be futile.
Durant is a lock to end up in Springfield.
All but three retired players who won NBA MVP have made the Hall of Fame. The exceptions, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash and Shaquille O’Neal, are unquestionable locks to be inducted once eligible—which Iverson and O’Neal are in 2016.
Nash, a two-time MVP and the orchestrator of one of the most iconic offenses in NBA history, will soon follow.
Including those legends, there’s another shortlist that Durant appears on. Among active players, only seven have won MVP and reached the NBA Finals.
Those players are Bryant, Curry, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, James, Dirk Nowitzki and, of course, Durant.
Curry’s Hall of Fame status is up for debate due to the brevity of his star status, but even he is more than likely to make it. Durant’s candidacy is solidified; not only is he a former league MVP with an NBA Finals appearance, but he has five All-NBA First Team appearances.
Every retired player but two—Jason Kidd and O’Neal—with five All-NBA First Team appearances is in the Hall of Fame. Both Kidd and O’Neal will join them in the very near future.
Durant will, as well.
Already a Legend, Part II
Whether fair or foul, no player garners more hype on the all-time spectrum than the scorer. This isn’t to say that everyone who scores at a reasonably high level deserves or receives praise, but instead to acknowledge the players who do so at a genuinely elite level.
Kevin Durant falls right in line with those legends.
At 27 years old, Durant has already won four scoring titles. That puts him in rare air that not only solidifies his legendary status, but suggests that he’s not too far off from Kobe Bryant’s request of, “Being the greatest.”
Only five players in NBA history have won at least four scoring titles: Wilt Chamberlain, Durant, George Gervin, Iverson, and Michael Jordan.
Two of those players, Chamberlain and Jordan, appear in a vast majority of the world’s everchanging “Top 10 players of all-time” lists. The others, Gervin and Iverson, either lacked Durant’s complementary accolades—Gervin never won MVP or made a Finals appearance—or pale in comparison to The Servant’s impeccable efficiency.
The question is, can Durant elevate his game to the next level and become the greatest?
Be The Greatest
If there’s one identifiable flaw in Kevin Durant’s game, it’s his borderline refusal to consistently take over in the manner he’s capable. Despite standing somewhere in between 6’9″ and 7’0″, the man who can score from anywhere on the floor is quite selective with his shot.
On paper, that makes for good team basketball. In actuality, Durant needs to take over.
It might be the difference between the Oklahoma City Thunder winning a championship and failing to during a once-prophesied dynasty.
In the age of advanced metrics and the unbridled pursuit of efficiency, it seems sacrilegious to tell a player to become a volume scorer. The reality is, Durant is averaging 26.6 points on a slash line of .526/.426/.885 in 2015-16, and posted 32.0 points per game on marks of .503/.391/.873 in 2013-14.
For his career, Durant is averaging 27.3 points on absurd shooting percentages of .482/.381/.881.
When a player combines that level of production and efficiency, it’s only rational to ask them to shoot at a higher volume. If Durant can put up 32.0 points on 50.3 percent shooting, imagine how many points he could provide—all the while maintaining an efficient field goal percentage better than 45.0—with more aggressiveness.
For what it’s worth, only 12 teams in the NBA are shooting 45.0 percent or better in 2015-16.
Durant, meanwhile, hasn’t shot worse than 49.6 percent since 2010-11.
He’s never led the league in field goal attempts per game, but ranked No. 3 or better in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2013-14—two of those seasons during which the Thunder made their deepest postseason runs.
In 2011-12, Durant led Oklahoma City to a 47-19 record and an NBA Finals appearance. In 2013-14, he guided the Thunder to 59 wins and a Western Conference Finals trip.
Durant was No. 8 in 2012-13, when OKC lost in the second round, and No. 3 in 2010-11, when it reached the Western Conference Finals. He’s a distant No. 13 in 2015-16.
An ominous sign, to say the least.
Durant’s improvement as a facilitator and defender have put him in a position to fight for the “best in the world” label, but it’s his scoring that takes precedence above all else. He was dangerously close after 2013-14, but the lingering effects of a foot injury prematurely ended his season.
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Back and healthy, Durant must heed Kobe Bryant’s advice and strive to be the greatest—no matter what that means for his efficiency.