Lakers News: Kevin Durant Labels LeBron James NBA GOAT Ahead Of Primetime Matchup
All-Star Phoenix Suns power forward Kevin Durant is preparing for his first regular season matchup against All-Star Los Angeles Lakers combo forward LeBron James in five years (yes, really) tonight at Crypto.com Arena.
The 6'11" former league MVP and two-time champ, himself pretty handily a top 20 all-time NBA player, paid his LA adversary perhaps the highest basketball compliment possible.
"It's been a long time," Durant acknowledged. "Looking forward to hooping against arguably the best ever. It's always a fun challenge and [I] can't wait to see it."
James, a 19-time All-Star and All-NBA honoree, six-time All-Defensive Teamer, four-time MVP, four-time champ (with three different franchises), and the league's all-time leading scorer, is generally agreed to at least be on the Mount Rushmore of NBA greats, alongside Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan, Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Boston Celtics center Bill Russell. Where exactly he ranks amongst those other legends is the matter of heated debate across offices, barbershops and pubs all over the country, and has been for decades now.
The 6'9" superstar, embarking on his 21st pro season, remains somewhat astoundingly one of the best players in the world. Across his 1,422 career regular season bouts, James boasts averages of 27.2 points on .505/.344/.735 shooting splits, 7.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks per.
He has won titles against some of the best players ever, including Durant's Thunder in 2012, Stephen Curry's pre-Durant Golden State Warriors in 2016 (though James was no match for the two-man tandem of Curry and Durant on those Warriors clubs, along with future Hall of Famers Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, in two subsequent matchups, and Jimmy Butler's Miami Heat. Comparing him against Jordan, Cap and Russell is a bit apples-and-oranges due to the differences in everyone's respective eras.
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