The San Antonio Spurs have won a fifth NBA Championship in 47 seasons. The win was fueled — in a large part — by upcoming star Kawhi Leonard who became the youngest Bill Russell Finals MVP since Magic Johnson won a pair — in 1980 and 1982 — before turning 23. Despite Kawhi’s ascension, it seems 2014 regular season MVP Kevin Durant responded negatively to a tweet claiming Kawhi was a superior player to Paul George.
Twitter was blown away by the production of the former San Diego State product and one tweeter went so far as to rank him above Indiana Pacers all-star Paul George. Kevin Durant disagreed quite strongly with the fan and responded, “u trippin bro,” before taking down his tweet, which we’ve captured for posterity below:
Obviously, this could have just been a response to seemingly hyperbolic reactions after Kawhi’s fantastic 2014 NBA Finals, but it’s worth noting Kawhi has never been named to an all-star team and was only just named to the All-Defensive Second Team. George, meanwhile, in just one more season than Kawhi, has already made two all-star teams, won a Most Improved Player award, named to the All-NBA Third team the last two seasons, was an All-Defensive Second Team selection last year and All-Defensive First Team this year while finishing within the top 10 (No. 9) in MVP voting.
Kawhi Leonard is a special player who shined on the biggest stage in the game, but we think Durant was merely pointing out the discrepancy of tweeting in-the-moment rather than reflecting on the full season of both excellent wing players.
Here’s their comparison, via basketball-reference.com, between Kawhi’s third season and George’s fourth.
Is Paul George better than Kawhi Leonard?
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