Simson Garcia | Sports Editor
The game of basketball has fallen into the hands of many greats. While it may have been passed on from athlete to athlete, there were few that took it to the highest standard. There were athletes, and then there was LeBron James, and Kevin Durant, who are now exceeding the game to an even higher echelon. It’s them above everyone else, but clearly, for them, there’s a superior, there’s one who’s fitter, there’s a better.
Since his Akron, Ohio days, nobody had ever seen anybody like the former in “King James.” At 16 years old, he was already the ultimate basketball stud. He was fast, strong, had very high IQ basketball awareness for his age, and was imposing on the court. What is seen in James at age 33 now is the completion and maturation of the aforementioned.
Convincingly, he took the basketball world to a new level. Passing others with three state championships. He then passed one of the greatest draft classes in 2003, his class; passed the MJ and Kobe eras; passed the many failed attempts at surpassing a championship-less legacy; and passed, to where he’s settled now, with three championships, multiple MVP’s and “best player” to his resume; passed, like a jump to the next paragraph.
Then along came a spider, weaving his way about concurrently while James was developing his game until completion. Kevin “The Durantula” Durant, James’s rival in every sense of the competitive word, also went from being a high-school standout, to having little to no college experience before hitting the NBA. He too, was moving the game along and convincingly; winning league scoring titles, earning an MVP and planting his flag as one of the NBA’s best.
A collision course was inevitable — it was only a matter of time before the two met on the big scene. The 2012 finals, and the two then vets, followed much anticipation when their two respective teams in the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat met.
But it was a tale of two journeys. James left Cleveland, a place he made his lair for years — abandoned for what many had claimed was an easier route to the top. He joined Miami an already stacked team with Dwyane Wade. Hate and scrutiny followed him. But perhaps wrongly so, as he executed a carefully crafted plan for the future. There he was able to fully develop as a player, finally reigning in an era of dominance, but this dominance was unlike the dominance of before. This was championship trophy dominance.
After Miami/James defeated the Thunder/Durant in dominant fashion, four games to one and winning another championship in 2013, James returned to Cleveland two years later. This second run with Cleveland brought with him finals experience along with a blossomed repertoire of skill sets that helped win Cleveland’s first ever championship. It was James’s time. He was clearly the Jordan of this era.
After numerous unsuccessful NBA finals restorations, Durant too jumped ship and onto a winning environment. The same scrutiny followed him into Golden State with the Warriors, his new grounds. But having left Russell Westbrook, who won the league MVP following Durant’s departure, he knew he had to follow in Golden States’ direction, since only few teams like the Warriors had what it took to beat James’s Cavs, having already beat them in the 2015 finals. The fit came synchronously while KD was finally hitting his stride.
A 2017 finals bid between the Cavs and Warriors was set then, and the James versus Durant saga continued.
Only this time around, a shift in momentum occurred as Durant would finally maneuver past his ringless legacy, and passed James, once the Warriors bested Cleveland, 4-1.
The matchup happened again this past Christmas, with the Warriors again out gaining the Cavs. And again, the Warriors got the better on Martin Luther King Jr. day, sweeping the season series.
This rivalry may have tilted just a bit in Durant’s favor. He’s got the defending championship team to his arsenal that includes potential MVP nominee Stephen Curry, and has clearly outplayed James in their recent matchups. The head-head matchup says otherwise and says James is ahead in the win-loss matchup, 14-6. They’re close in points-per-game but James has a slight lead in rebounds. James’s also a better passer averaging three more assists than Durant. But Durant’s Warriors (37-10) are clearly better than the Cavs (28-18) right now. The NBA world has yet to see more of this matchup.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
Photo by: wsj.com
