Most of you who know me would probably say "Oh you are just joining the KD bandwagon because your boy Simmons is all over him like J-Woww with some guido at the club." False. I almost picked the Oklahoma City Thunder to get to the playoffs but I honestly couldn't see them winning enough games in the Western Conference. But oh how wrong I was.
The Thunder are currently sitting in seven place in the Western Conference and Kevin Durant has been the reason why the Thunder are the NBA's version of the Milwaukee Brewers threatening to make the playoffs this season with such a young nucleus. Durant has had over twenty-five points in the last twenty-three games. That is something that only a few players have done in the past couple of decades. The names are Michael Jordan, and Allen Iverson, two of the most prolific scorers in the NBA.
What mind boggles me about his scoring ability is the fact he can do all of this with only being 205 looking softer than the Rosanne's son as Lil Wayne once said in a song. I never thought he would be this good in the NBA because he was too skinny and I gave him plenty of shit for not being able to bench 185. In my opinion, the reason he is so good is because like LeBron, he is a matchup disaster for teams. Not many teams have a 6'5 and taller guy who is a good defender to keep up with Durant during an NBA game. This begs the question...
Is Durant the best young player in the NBA today? Absolutely, there is no question about that when a 21-year old is averaging 27.9 points 7 rebounds 3 assists a game and when this season is over, he may be a top five player in the league. That is a scary thought, but in all honesty, a guy at 6'9 doing some things that a 6'2 point guard cannot do.
Right now, he is on the LeBron James level of the NBA. Only James and Durant are on that level right now, no Dwight Howard, no Kobe Bryant, and no Dwyane Wade. That might seem crazy to some of you but look at the things, those two guys are doing compared to the rest of the league. It's not even funny the level of basketball these two guys are playing at therefore it's making their teams ten times better.
The other great thing about Durant is he is a likable guy just like the other newcomers that have come before him (see Chris Paul, Howard, James, Wade). He doesn't have an attitude just yet and he seems happy to be playing with the Thunder. In addition, just playing basketball in general seems to put a smile on Durant's face.
I really hope that ESPN leads with Durant as they do LeBron so much because we are that point with him. He needs that LeBron-Kobe level of attention and I would like to think Durant should be apart of that equation. Yes, he is that good.
-Charlie.
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