Why Kevin Durant Deserves First Team… and much, much more

Truthfully, Kevin Durant was not as valuable as Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James this regular season. (Check WS/48). He casually exhaled over the course of 82 games, dropping 28 a night on .505/.386/.898 shooting, securing 3rd in the toughest conference sports has ever seen. Ho-hum.

Life is funny though, because right now in the playoffs HE’S THE BEST PLAYER ON THE FREAKING PLANET.

Don’t Believe Me Because No One Does

And why should they? LeBron smothers every struggling weed trying to grow through the cracks in the East, and Kawhi plays with so many Hall-of-Famers he never has to worry about losing games. Until, you know… Durant dropped 40 in game four and sent him packing.

Bingo! That’s exactly the point. While LeBron (who somehow ceded two games to the lowly Raptors) and Kawhi (who somehow snagged 1st team over KD) are busy underperforming expectations, Durant is making his summer predictions come through. You know, the one about him feeling like he’s the best player in the world? Well, outside of OKC, there’s a small crowd now rallying for him as he chases titles. Not just scoring titles. Not just championships. He wants to be the GOAT.

No Shoulders? No Problem

Turns out you don’t need protein powder to lead the most athletic team of all time. Slim Reaper is doing it on both ends of the floor for the first time in his playoff career. It was weird finding numbers for this, because KD is defending more field goals than everybody on the OKC team this postseason. Feel free to switch zones when you click that link. He is quite literally EVERYWHERE on the court

As a fan that’s always been terrified of what Slim can do, even I don’t understand where this is coming from. It’s almost like he and Russ took some cocaine before game 3, when they set all of the following records during their greatest win ever:

• Biggest win over a 70 win team in NBA Playoff history

• Most points scored against a 70 win team in NBA Playoff history

• 2nd biggest thrashing of a 70 win team EVER

• 2nd most points scored against a 70 win team EVER

Remember when we thought Curry was better than KD? psyche, nobody on this site ever truly thought that. If you’ve watched basketball you’ve seen KD and you know he’s always ready to pounce. Even when others (who shall remain nameless in their respective conference) were winning MVPs, wasn’t there still some hint in the air of Slim’s superiority?

Certainly as a scorer. But now he’s superior without any qualifiers. Who else is defending and scoring and passing and rebounding and doing everything you can ask of a man and his basketball?

Don’t sit there betting on the Warriors to win Game Five, especially when our numbers say a Warriors win is as likely as two heads in a row. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe the refs will help it along, but even still you should never disrespect this man again. Kevin Durant, All-NBA Second Team, 2016. Wikipedia will always say that, but our hearts never will. THUNDER UP!