Why Kevin Durant Is Better Than LeBron James
LeBron James (photo. Nike Basketball)
While James’ shooting is frequently subject to pronounced hot and cold streaks, Durant has displayed his ability over the last four years to consistently hit any shot within the three-point line. For every big shot James has hit, he has also forced countless more on an off-night, often from deep beyond the arc, and cost his team the game. In Games 2 through 5 of the 2011 Finals, during the most crucial point in the series, he proceeded to put up 18 threes and shot an abysmal 16.7% from downtown.
James also failed to serve as an efficient source of offense, shooting a collective 42% from the field in those games and impeding momentum that could very well have tipped in the Heat’s favor. On the contrary, Durant shot 45% in the 2011 postseason and 43% in the Western Conference Finals, despite averaging six threes a game and 21 total shots in that series to James’ 4.7 and 15 in the Finals.
Nonetheless, Durant’s unselfish demeanor is the key reason why he will end his career with multiple championships. The quiet leader knows how to rise to the occasion and come up with huge efforts in vital games, but he doesn’t have to be the whole team. Durant knows how to defer to his teammates when he’s having a bad game, and doesn’t try to be the hero just because he is billed as a star. According to 82games.com, Durant shot 41.5% from the field in 2009-10 during the last five minutes and overtime in games in which neither team was winning by more than five points. Still, Durant passed up the ball enough times for his teammate Russell Westbrook to average 2.65 field goal attempts for every five minutes of “clutch time,” compared to Durant’s 2.8 attempts.
In contrast, James often dominates the ball in critical situations, completely isolating his teammates and attempting to win games by playing one, or even two-on-one. As recorded by 82games, James attempted over 50 game-winning shots from 2003-2009, connecting on only 34% of them. In addition, he recorded only six game-winning assists in the same span, compared to nine by Paul Pierce (32 shot attempts) and six by Mike Bibby (22 attempts). Or, if James has a few subpar games and starts to feel the pressure, he will completely disengage like he did during the most recent Finals.
The stats, however, do not tell the full story. One just has to watch James at the end of a game, either pounding the ball against the court as he barrels with his head down towards a wall of defenders, or standing behind the three-point line with his hands at his sides, watching disinterestedly as a teammate tries to make a shot.
Unless James can find a way to alter his playing style, or can go through an entire postseason with no individual shortcomings, The King will retire with a hand void of jewelry.
So, while James find himself on the edge of a downward spiral, universally maligned for his epic collapse in the most important series of his life, Durant is advancing in strides every year, on a team full of talent that’s poised to compete for the Western Conference title.
Do you agree?
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September 30th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
panchitoooo says:
durants extreme talent tend to only be on the offensive side of the court while Lebrons abilities extend from baseline to baseline. i think Brons rating as a player is boosted because of his defensive agression and the fact he can match up with almost any player on the court.
its like a little kid made 2 players on a basketball game. of course you only have so many attribute points so when making KD they put it all on offense (shooting, dunking, clutch, etc.) and then worried about defense. but when they made Lebron they put all rating bars to 80 and just sprinkled the rest of the points at passing and dunking.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
beiber newz says:
all i saw was a lot of intangibles mentioned t o help support the idea thst durant is better. um, that’s not enough. lebron brings more to the team. and his talents are seen. i pick lebron 5 out of 5 times.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
bingo says:
i usually love dime articles but this one is incredibly weak….with an odd, drawn out metaphor to start, and then bold, sweeping predictions to end.
cmon man. this is not journalism.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
panchitoooo says:
with all the hype that this article brings toward KD you still cant forget the fact that Lebron and his skill set took the horrible Cavs to the Finals. the Thunder have gone no where except home after the 2nd round of the playoffs and thats with KD averaging 28.6PPG.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
SayItAintSo says:
I’m an admissions counselor at a relatively selective University. I mention this because I feel compelled to tell you that was quite possibly the worst analogy in the history of Dime. That is all.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
shuttles says:
Agree with bingo, this was kinda weak. I mean, let’s mention all of Bron’s flaws and all of Durant’s strengths and then compare the two… come on now.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
BiGShoTBoB says:
@pANCHITO What are you talking about Durant was in the western conference finals last year. My opinion is that James will win one before Durant only because he plays in the East with no one to challenge the heat. In the west you got the Lakers, the Mavs and the Grizzlies. Unless something crazy happens like Dwight changing teams the Heat will be in the Finals for the next couple years.
September 30th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
panchitoooo says:
@BiGShoTBoB
sorry meant to say has never won a Western Conference Finals…lol…
September 30th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
YC says:
lol look at lbjs line up when he got to the final hahaha
September 30th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Markus says:
Durant is big-time, but the ONLY thing he does better than Lebron is shoot/score. KD is a much better shooter, and a overall better score because of his superiority at the free throw line. Lebron is much better in all other aspects of the game.
September 30th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
panchitoooo says:
i feel like the West is weakening while the East is growing stronger. Kobe is old, Dirks old, Kidds old, Nash is old, duncan, parker, and manu are old. all the powerhouses of the West are done. now in the east you got Melo and Amare, you got Wade, Lebron, and Bosh, you got Johnson, Horford, and Crawford, you got Dwight and whoever joins him, you got Deron Williams and whoever joins him, Celtics still got DEFENSE, you got D Rose and Boozer. East is stacking chips getting ready for war
September 30th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
First & Foremost says:
Why Kevin is Better than Lebron? Okay, fine, whatever. What can Kevin do better than Lebron?
What can Lebron do better than Kevin?
Alright, Kevin’s playoff numbers increased. That might have more to do with him not being introduced to Ron Artest right off the bat. When Lebron was his age he was battling the pistons, when the pistons actually meant something. We will call that a push.
As someone mentioned in the first comparison: KD is the better scorer and teammate but Lebron does everything else better. On top of that, they aren’t even that far apart in scoring per game.
September 30th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
panchitoooo says:
Brons battles the Piston, Celtics, and Wizards made his famous
September 30th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Big Island says:
If I were starting a team, I take Lebron. If I need a scorer, I take Durant. Pretty simple. Nobody thinks that Lebron is a better scorer than Durant. Durant will get buckets with anyone past or present. And judging from the responses here, nobody really thinks Durant brings more to the table than Lebron.
@SayItAintSo – If this is the worst analogy you have read on Dime, well, you don’t read too many articles on Dime. Or the comments for that matter. I come up with analogies way worse than this one, and this one is bad.
September 30th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Phileus says:
Meh. I’m a hater, but even I have to say that LeBron is better than Durant.
September 30th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
40 cal former bouncemag.com writer says:
Im not Lebron’s biggest fan but i just felt I had to say this article is an outrage. Kevin Durant better than Lebron James is like saying Harold Minor was better than Mike Jordan when he was somewhat doing his thing.
September 30th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
beiber newz says:
HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE REMEMBER THIS QUOTE COME OUT OF LEBRON’S MOUTH??
“If I really wanted to, if I really wanted to be the scoring [champion] every single year — every single year — I could really do it. But it doesn’t matter.”
September 30th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Big Island says:
Beib – that quote was erased the second he let the words “take my talents to South Beach” and “not 2, not 3, not 4…” leave his mouth. I am a Lebron hater though. I am going to go back to my same old life.
October 1st, 2011 at 10:19 am
Drink the Haterade says:
I Would take Durant! LBJ has proven to be a robin not a Batman. Batman is the star of the show Robin the sidekick. You need a Batman to win a championship
October 1st, 2011 at 10:24 am
dagwaller says:
Kevin Durant’s ability to score will hopefully be curbed this offseason. Reports are coming out of the lockout boardrooms that the owners want the “ripthrough” “move”/offensive foul banned, and the players have all been practicing it all summer. It’s going to replace the flop as the scourge of the game.
October 1st, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Big Island says:
Dag – Kobe’s scoring will drop of 8 a game if they actually stop calling that foul. Durant’s will drop 10.
October 1st, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Atom says:
“Still, Durant passed up the ball enough times for his teammate Russell Westbrook to average 2.65 field goal attempts for every five minutes of “clutch time,” compared to Durant’s 2.8 attempts.”
I know this isnt supposed to be an objective piece, but we are supposed to believe Durant is better than Lebron because he allowed Westbrook to take so many crunchtime shots? I am sure this stat had nothing to do with the fact that Westbrook plays point and has shown a propensity for throwing the ball up whenever he feels like it.
You might as well argue that Durant is such a great teammate because he letts Iblocka pad his defensive stats when Durant loses his man.
Unless my team only needs offense, I take the King easily. No brainer.
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:23 am
Alonzo says:
Why is Durant a Batman? He hasn’t lead his team to the finals. (which james did 2007) so he is no better in that aspect. this whole argument is BS dime. either you focus on basketball skill, than there is no better than lbj because he has a complete game(by the way defense is not just a factor its 50% of the game stop jogging Offense that much)
or you focus on killer instinct and leading your team to success as the absolute main weapon. then the discussion of the best can only contain Kobe(as much as I hate to say), Wade and mybe Dirk. Only since Duncan is now definately no dominant player anymore.
so this whole discussion KD LBJ is bogus. Skill wise even LBJ haters admit he is the most complete. and leadershipwise DUrant hasn’t done shit in the nba…
October 2nd, 2011 at 12:37 pm
nba jerseys says:
Durant better than Lebron, not for me Lebron every time.
Brings so much more to his team than Durant.
October 2nd, 2011 at 4:00 pm
hooper5013 says:
I love how Durant leaps over Carmelo and gets to LeBron status. His offensive game is vastly overrated first off. His jumper is wet, transition he is a beast off the dribble he is regular. Did you guys forget that against the Mavs he was getting straight up “little boyed” by Jason Kidd (38 year old 17 year vet 6’4 point guard, half the athlete he was in his prime). Durant isn’t a fluent side to side athlete at all. He is great don’t get me wrong. But he can’t score with Melo, Bryant, Dirk, or Bron. He isn’t half the rebounder Bron or Melo are, and he isn’t nearly the ball handler, or passer of either. Neither are great defenders but if we had to rank them Bron, Melo, Durant is how it goes (given that Durant tries harder than melo most nights, he still isn’t as good a defender when both decide to pull up their shorts)
Anyways…not that bad of an article but it’s wrong. No if ands or but’s about it
October 3rd, 2011 at 9:20 am
Nevacare says:
I Like both players.LBJ is better than KD on Defense,Ball-handling,& Passing..KD is a Better Shooter/Scorer thats pretty much all there is to KD at this point. No Doubt KD has more room to grow than LBJ. Don’t forget that KD faded horrendously against the Mavs, being guarded by a player 5 inches shorter. Then he was deferring to Westbrook, who was in jack-mode & ultimately hurt the team.
October 3rd, 2011 at 10:20 am
Drig says:
Durant still hasn’t reached the Finals is being held against him?!?! Need I remind you guys that between 2004-2007, EAST was pathetic compared to the West. Pathetic.
By the time Durant matured as a player, he had to go through guys like Kobe, Melo and Dirk.
And LBJ went through…….Oh yeah, that Detroit team which was spiraling downwards!
However, this article is weak…..LBJ is a better primary ball handler than Durant and can actually make plays which Durant SORELY lacks.
Rebounding – LBJ
Shooting – Durant
Finishing at the rim – LBJ
Defence – Tie
Playmaking – LBJ
Intangibles – Slight edge to Durant although next season will be the acid test for LBJ in this regard.
LBJ>Durant.
Now could anyone tell me why Durant>Melo???