Kevin Durant Catches Flak For Baseball Dig At Michael Jordan On LeBron James’ Podcast

Kevin Durant made an offhand comment while on LeBron James' Mind the Game podcast about Michael Jordan.

Kevin Durant Catches Flak For Baseball Dig At Michael Jordan On LeBron James’ Podcast

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan (FS Image)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

Kevin Durant and LeBron James are two pantheon legends in the history of the game of basketball. Both players have set dizzyingly high standards of play for the small forward position in their own distinct ways. KD entered the league as a scoring machine and has proven to be one of the most lethal scorers of all time. LeBron James is the greatest player of all time in the eyes of many younger generation fans.

Both of them have shown unprecedented levels of longevity as players as well. Durant is entering year 19 of his NBA sojourn, and James is going to be in year 23 next year. Their dedication to working on their craft and competing for titles year after year while still individually becoming more skilled at different aspects of the game is something that every young player should try to inculcate and emulate.

Speaking about his own dedication and that of James for being at it for so long, Kevin Durant made a comment that could be interpreted in two ways:

I truly feel that you gotta recommit and sign the contract with yourself every so often. Like alright, you have 10, 12 years in and have four MVPs, four championships, but ‘Do I still wanna do this s**t?’, you know what I’m saying? Some people say I wanna go play baseball. And then you come back. Some people say I wanna go 22 straight, you know what I’m saying? So it’s a contract, I feel like you gotta have with yourself too.

The comment about baseball was obviously directed at the consensus GOAT, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan retired in 1993 after winning three straight NBA championships, citing burnout. The death of his father was a reason for him to try and pursue playing baseball professionally, to please his father’s spirit.

Kevin Durant didn’t necessarily portray it in a negative light by itself. But by making an offhand comment about Jordan’s first retirement without providing context, he opened up room for interpretation from other fans. Sure enough, the internet ran with the words for what they were and put both LeBron James and KD under the spotlight.

Kevin Durant and LeBron James downplayed another legend in the same interview, even though jokingly

While Michael Jordan is still alive and breathing, the second greatest scorer in NBA history by volume – Wilt Chamberlain – passed away nearly three decades ago. He averaged 50 points per game in a season and had a 100-point game against the Knicks. But LeBron James and Kevin Durant had a laugh about the internet meme going around about Wilt never actually scoring 100 because it wasn’t caught on camera. James said:

I can’t wait to hold up a sign with my grandkids that I scored 101 points in a game before.

It is easy for James and Durant to be all fun and games while joking about other legends. But they are always cut to the quick when those same jokes are made at their expense. James gets his agent Rich Paul to appear on media shows and run cover for him. Kevin Durant does his own defense on social media, tweeting away at people. None of this really is serious, but players in the past didn’t treat their predecessors this way.

Also Read: