For the last two seasons, the Cavaliers faced off in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. For the last six years, LeBron’s Eastern Conference team made it to the NBA Finals to take on whoever came out of the West. Only one of those times did that Western team contain Kevin Durant, who was considered for years (and might be again) the second-best player in the NBA behind LeBron.
As one might imagine, this was a motivating factor for KD, who discussed it on Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons.
A look at Durant’s stats in the two years after that Finals appearance — years derailed by critical injuries at key times — show that Durant indeed took some lessons from those Finals to heart. His assists jumped immediately, he became a better defender, and he won the MVP in 2013-14. He also started working out a lot harder in the offseason and it was clear he thought of himself as in the same class as LeBron.
But then his foot injury happened in 2015. And then this past year, when the Thunder were agonizingly close to the Finals only to give up a 3-1 lead to the Warriors (who would then go on to blow their own 3-1 lead), it really seemed to be a breaking point. It might have also necessitated the move to the Warriors, a move that looks awfully similar to the one LeBron made in 2010.
Also running hand in hand with LeBron, is Durant’s ability to compartmentalize the game, in a way their MVP antecedents could not. He doesn’t hate his opponents, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to whoop them when they’re competing on an NBA hardwood.
Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City to join up with the already-historically-great Golden State Warriors because he felt it was his best chance to get another chance at the Finals. That’d most likely mean another chance at LeBron. Hearing Durant discuss how that first Finals series went down against James, you can tell how badly he wants another crack at the King.
That’s not all he said on Simmons’ show, either:
