Did you miss the part where LeBron finished ahead of KD in damn near EVERY MVP vote of their entire careers?
Beat him in damn near EVERY head-to-head game they played?
Was in the Finals picture damn near EVERY single year?
LeBron was 1st-team NBA in every single one of KD's first 11 seasons. KD has only been 1st-team NBA in 6.
LeBron has 6 All-Defensive selections and two DPOY runner-up finishes. KD has zero All-Defensive selections and has never received even a single DPOY first-place vote.
KD's greatest accomplishments until joining a 73-win team were losing to LeBron in the Finals and losing a 3-1 lead to the same team LeBron beat.
More NBA GMs say they would start a franchise with LeBron than start a franchise with KD right now. Not in their primes, even NOW they'd rather build around LeBron than around KD. NBA GM's say that LeBron is the best small forward in the league
right now, the most versatile player, the best passer, the best leader, has the highest bball IQ, and forces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments. That's NOW, and LeBron is nearly 34 while Durant is 30 and in his prime. And yet GMs agree across the board that LeBron still better.
Hell, LeBron is "The King" while KD is "The Servant."
How many different ways can I break this down for you? NO ONE will ever say that KD was better than LeBron when they were both playing. LeBron dominated him in every way.
So KD stans are now gonna give him a potential DPOY award when he hasn't even gotten a single 1st-place DPOY vote in his entire career, hasn't gotten a single all-defensive team selection in his entire career, and isn't even a top-3 defender on his own team?
Just because KD told them he deserves it.
Talk about another MVP when it's been like five years since his last top-5 MVP vote finish.
He's gonna get the same credit for his rings that Sam Jones does, that Havlicek does, that Pippen does, that Kobe does. It's a great argument for stans, but no one else will care.
KD ain't even the focus of his own team's offense, that's Curry. He ain't even the 2nd-best shooter on the team, that's Klay. He ain't the most important distributor or even second-best, that's Steph and Draymond. He ain't the focus of the team's defense, that's Draymond, and he ain't second best either, Klay and Iggy both ahead of him. He damn near seven feet tall and he ain't even the best rebounder, Dray and Zaza and every other big man was better than him there.
KD has lucked into a couple of Finals MVPs because the defenses have completely focused on Curry and he's gotten to feast on single coverage and broken plays. He's been able to have the easiest job ever on defense because Draymond and Klay and Iggy do all the heavy lifting there. But everyone knows this ain't his team and has never been his team. He's just an elite cog in a machine that was already elite without him.
KD is a fantastically skilled all-around player. It's amazing that he is nearly seven feet tall and shoots as well as he does.
But 20 years from now people will still be watching ESPN classic and talking about LeBron scoring the final 25 points in Game 5 against Detroit in 2007, dueling for 45 points in game 7 against Boston in 2008, putting up 49-5-6 trying to beat Orlando 1-on-5 in 2009, shutting down MVP D-Rose on both ends of the court in 2011, putting up the 40-18-9 game when Bosh went out and they went down 2-1 to the Pacers in 2012, putting up the 45-15-5 game when they went down 3-2 to the Celtics in 2012, putting up the 37-12-5 game in Game 7 against the Spurs in 2013, going super-saiyon averaging 41 points/game with Love/Kyrie out against the Warriros in 2015, scoring ridiculous 41-16-7, 41-8-11, and then 27-11-11 with the biggest block in history to come back from 3-1 down in the 2016 Finals, and then dragging a horrible Cavs team to the Finals in 2018 with 46-12-5, 44-10-8, 45-8-7, 43-8-14, 42-10-12, 44-5-3, 46-11-9, and 51-8-8 games, all in must-win situations.
Meanwhile, they'll remember that KD....hit a few threes? And not even the biggest ones, as LeBron's got way more game-winners and buzzer-beaters than KD too.
KD will go down as the best beta in NBA history. That doesn't get you tagged as the best SF of all time.
