Kevin Durant delivered a scorching-hot take out of nowhere on Wednesday.
It’s one thing to praise your opponents, and be classy in victory, which is clearly what Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and others have been doing, and that’s great. We all know the Cavs are the second-best team in the NBA right now, and that the duo of Kyrie Irving and LeBron James is a lethal one.
But let’s not start putting Irving up there with some of the NBA’s all-time greats, that’s a bit ridiculous.
That’s exactly what Durant did while appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast Wednesday, though.
It started with some generic high praise for Irving, which was great and certainly true. Here’s what Durant had to say.
“I was telling some of my friends after Game 2, Kyrie just makes you happy when you watch him play,” Durant said. “You just smile when you watch him play. For somebody to be that skilled, you know he had to work tirelessly at it…the stuff he has in his [layup] package is next level stuff that you can try to teach your kids…but [they’ll] never be able to do it. I’ve never seen anybody block his layup, and he’s 6’2″…the spin he got on it, and he don’t have to look at it…I got so much respect for him because I know how much work he had to do to be that good.”
And that’s when the comparison talk came up, with Simmons kind of baiting Durant into comparing Irving to Allen Iverson.
“Kyrie’s better than A.I. to me. Skill for skill, his handle is better…I feel like Kyrie got more skill. I’m sorry.”
Durant did go on to say it wasn’t a knock on Iverson, but let’s be real here. Iverson played on a Sixers team that had next to no talent aside from him, and led them to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
Sure, maybe Irving has slightly-cleaner handles, but Iverson was better at creating his own shot — which he often had to do, drawing double teams — and had the sickest crossover the NBA has ever seen. Iverson’s quickness allowed him to blow by his opponents and sneak into the paint, which made him tough to defend.
Irving has the benefit of playing alongside LeBron, as well as Kevin Love, which certainly makes his job easier. If Iverson was paired with any superstars, he likely would’ve won a title.
All in all, I have a lot of respect for Kyrie’s game, with his sick handles and ability to finish at the rim. But I still believe AI was the better player, and KD is just being a victim of the moment here.
What do you think?