Why LeBron James Is Better Than Kevin Durant
LeBron James (photo. Nike Basketball)
When we posted this debate a few weeks ago – LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant – it set off an avalanche of opinions. On Friday, we gave you the KD side. Now, another writer comes with his rebuttal…
To the untrained eye, the comparison between LeBron James and Kevin Durant is closely similar. Both players share a very unique game composed of guard-like skills in a big man’s body. If you block out all exterior factors, and focus solely on each player’s game on the court, the comparison is acceptable. Durant has played four NBA seasons to LeBron’s eight and has put up similar statistics in his first four seasons to what LeBron was able to do in his first four.
The biggest separation between the two as far as numbers is in the assist category, where it’s clear to see that LeBron is far more advanced (however we’re not going to hold that against Durant in this argument).
When you look at it from a more analytical perspective, there are so many other reasons (besides the stats) why Durant has such a long way to go to reach the level that LeBron James is at right now. The argument has become pretty popular because people seem to love Durant so much, and hate LeBron so much. Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the fact that the comparison is a silly one. Simply put, the two stars are at very different stages in their careers, and that is the biggest difference between the two.
At this time, LeBron James is easily the most heavily criticized player the NBA has ever seen. Most of his critics will tell you that it’s all a result of the attention he’s brought onto himself. That may hold true, however it doesn’t matter. LeBron James catches more heat than any player to ever hit the hardwood (no pun intended), regardless if he brings it upon himself or not. Don’t get me wrong now, he’s no Mr. Perfect. However since he’s put on that Miami jersey, LeBron James has always been the scapegoat when the Heat turns lukewarm, even when it’s not all his fault.
Since he’s been in the league, LeBron has always been judged on a higher scale than the rest of his peers. The bar was already set extremely high for him from the time he was a rookie. Moving to Miami raised that bar of expectations higher than ever. Yet, that didn’t seem to affect his play much at all. Durant has never been forced to play under such harsh circumstances with the eyes of every basketball fan in the world watching his every move.
After he decided to move to Miami, LeBron James was called a “Robin”, a player who was running away from the limelight and needed someone else to carry him to glory. Yet despite that, he came to Miami, controlled the basketball, took over the scoring load and the role as the number one option immediately. With the eyes of every basketball fan in the world on him, he managed to put together another season deserving of MVP honors, despite playing along side two other All-Stars. At the end of games, whether or not he comes up short, the ball always found itself in the hands of LeBron James. So how can he be a “Robin”? The pressure was on for LeBron this season, and up until the Finals, he delivered consistently.
The 2011 NBA Finals is every LeBron critic’s dream. The fact that he came up so small on the biggest stage serves as ammunition for those arguing he is the “Robin” to Wade’s “Batman” or that because he fell short, he is inferior to someone like Kevin Durant. Call me crazy, but the 2011 NBA Finals serves as proof of the exact contrary.
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October 3rd, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Justin says:
100% agree.
LeBron > Durant
October 3rd, 2011 at 2:40 pm
GoEasy says:
didn’t even need to read the article… I already know.
October 3rd, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Ian says:
who the f thinks durant is better?
October 3rd, 2011 at 3:03 pm
panchitoooo says:
true, true, true and true…
October 3rd, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Promoman says:
Of course LeBron’s better than Kevin Durant. LeBron’s an overrated defender but he plays harder and produces more than Durant. He’s also better than Durant in every area but shooting but LeBron’s better overall offensively.
October 3rd, 2011 at 3:30 pm
JAY says:
Lebron is better but I feel like if you replaced Lebron with Durant, the Heat would have won the championship last year. I’m just sayin’… it just seems like a better makeup, chemistry wise.
October 3rd, 2011 at 3:33 pm
yentron says:
so you think lebron threw the finals to prove a point? i’m no lebron fanboy, but this article is insulting to him
October 3rd, 2011 at 4:01 pm
panchitoooo says:
regardless if he threw the Finals or not, Lebron did prove the point brought up in this article, even if by accident…
October 3rd, 2011 at 5:26 pm
WR says:
@Jay: Agreed.
October 3rd, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Meka says:
So true. I think Wade tried to become the alpha male in the finals and that’s why they lost. If you noticed how well Miami was doing when Lebron was leading and Wade seemly okay with it until the final. It was frustrating to hear and watch Wade talk about him being there before and leading his team. It was like he was trying to stand out or something. Miami will suffer the same demise again if Wade continue to believe he’s the best player on Miami. Lebron is no role player and he will continue having the same issues again if Miami attempts to use him as such.
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Ceasar paciotti says:
So the thesis of your argument is that
Lebron choked purposely in order to assert his
Position as the dominant alpha male in order to ensure future
Success???? Gtfoh I need some of that yiff u smoking and I don’t even smoke no more. Get lebrons dick outta your mouth he’s not built for this life. He’s what I like to call Dominique Wilkins 2.0. Human highlight reel but no Jewerly on the ring finger. D wade got a ring damn near singlehandedly. Lebron got swept in the finals. The only flash of greatness I’ve ever seen outta lebron is that 4th quarter against Detroit where he scored like 25 str8. But that was obviously a fluke
October 3rd, 2011 at 6:22 pm
sans says:
wait. is your argument that Lebron is better because he intentionally played like ass in the Finals? really? in order to prove his haters wrong, he tanked the finals…that makes no sense.
October 3rd, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Sam says:
To me, Lebron tanked the last two years, last year because he wanted an excuse to leave, and this year because Jason Kidd is his good friend and a guy he looks up to.
I think Lebron James is a douche-bag, plain and simple, but I also acknowledge that if he wants to be, he will be the best player in the NBA.
To Jay’s point, that the Heat would be better off with Durant. It’s only true because the Heat put two very similar players together in James and Wade. Durant would give them two different looks that can score at will.
James would have been better off playing with Amare in NY, not because I’m a Knicks fan, but their styles of play would make for an extremely exciting, power house kind of team. But he will still win championships with Wade and Bosh in Miami- they almost did it against the Mavericks and they (mostly Lebron) played like crap. Imagine what they’ll do with an upgraded bench and maybe a better center?
October 3rd, 2011 at 7:24 pm
John Starks says:
You think LeBron tanked the Finals on purpose? GTFOH
October 3rd, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Waggle says:
Co-sign yentron.
Not sure of the angle you’re going for here.
October 3rd, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Jaimie Canterbury says:
For those of you missing the point of this article:
LeBron James is better because he’s at a point in his career where he is expected to finish on top, Durant hasn’t made it there yet.
My explanation to why LeBron played poorly in the Finals was in response to the post that was written on Durant last week. The authors position was solely focused upon LeBrons poor performance in the Finals. Which is what nearly every LeBron critic focuses upon. My argument is that it’s unfair to judge him solely on the one series where he wasn’t playing free-minded LeBron James basketball. He was more concerned with accomplishing something else in order to write his story for the oncoming seasons accordingly.
Regardless of if it was intentional or not, he proved a point by not showing up. What triggered him to prove that point is beyond me. Maybe it was the criticism, maybe it was Coach Spolstra who decided to take things in a different direction that maybe LeBron wasn’t too fond of. Whatever it was, you could tell by how passive he was that he felt he had something to prove. To whom is the question.
His fans?
His coach?
His critics?
maybe even all of the above.
If you’re gonna sit here and tell me LeBron James had his career low in the NBA Finals, on the biggest stage, in a PIVOTAL game 3, in the most critical year of his career because he simply had a bad game; I’m gonna tell you you need to think a little bit more deeply into who we’re talking about here.
October 4th, 2011 at 8:52 am
JAY says:
“If you’re gonna sit here and tell me LeBron James had his career low in the NBA Finals, on the biggest stage, in a PIVOTAL game 3, in the most critical year of his career because he simply had a bad game; I’m gonna tell you you need to think a little bit more deeply into who we’re talking about here.”
Not just a bad game… a horrible SERIES.
You think the dude who says he joined the Heat for one single reason – to win not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, etc – rings just hung his teammates, his FRIENDS out to dry?? If you honestly think that, I hope your pens dry up forever and every single spacebar you encounter doesn’t work. Why can’t it be something that happens to other very good players… he just choked under the pressure?
However, for argument’s sake, let’s just assume that you are right… and Lebron actually did throw in the towel to prove a point. IF that has any truth to it, then Lebron James is not better than Kevin Durant. If it’s true then we could put Lebron on the same level as Vince Carter… a dude who stopped trying.
October 4th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Ronnie says:
D-Wade did try to assert himself as Alpha Male. HE DID. I could see it from the get go. Especially when the Mavs won that Game 2 in Miami. The Heat definitely should’ve won, but through LeBron James’ lead. Dwayne Wade would’ve never won that Ring without Shaq. Hence exactly why Kobe didn’t win another ring for a while. But if they would let LeBron be the leader they will win. Promise.
October 4th, 2011 at 10:00 am
dagwaller says:
Rick Carlisle, Shawn Marion, DeShawn Stevenson, and Jason Kidd are why LeBron had a bad series. Not LeBron James, his ego, his skill, Dwyane Wade, Erik Spoelstra, or any other reason anyone seems to think.
October 4th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Sam says:
Here’s some stats:
Lebron James, Quarter-Finals averages vs. Philadelphia
42 minutes, .470 FG%, 10 trips to the line, 24 points
Lebron James, Semi-Finals averages vs. Boston
44 minutes, .472 FG%, 8 trips to the line, 28 points
Lebron James, Conference Finals averages vs. Chicago
45 minutes, .439 FG%, 9 trips to the line and 26 points.
Lebron James, NBA Finals averages vs. Mavericks
43.7, .478 FG%, and 4 TRIPS TO THE LINE, 18 points a game.
There are two conclusions to draw from this, I literally don’t see any others you can draw.
1) The Refs dislike Lebron. They didn’t give him any of the calls he usually gets.
2) Lebron didn’t try as hard in the Finals, the one I believe. There were too many open looks and easy buckets that Lebron didn’t take advantage of (at one point he drove into the lane and dumped it off to the big man even with an open bucket in front of him!)
You can call the Dallas Mavericks an incredible defense ALL DAY and I won’t believe they are that much better than the Bulls that they stopped Lebron James from going to the free throw lines at least 8 times a game. The first four games were decided by 8 points, 4 points, 3 points, 2 points. If Lebron James had played even close to the way he normally does the Heat would have been up 3-1. There’s no way they should have lost the Finals.
The only reason I could see for Lebron to give up the Finals is Jason Kidd, and even Dirk a little bit. Give the old guys their one last chance to shine on the spotlight before the Heat completely take over the league. People don’t want to believe this because they want to believe that championships are sacred. But I think Lebron truly didn’t care if they won this year. The media wanted to see him fail and he gave them a gift.
October 4th, 2011 at 11:59 am
JAY says:
@Ronnie: “D-Wade did try to assert himself as Alpha Male. HE DID. I could see it from the get go. Especially when the Mavs won that Game 2 in Miami. The Heat definitely should’ve won, but through LeBron James’ lead. Dwayne Wade would’ve never won that Ring without Shaq.”
Yup, Wade wouldn’t have won without Shaq…. just like he he didn’t win without James. Dude didn’t show up. fuck that alpha male shit. That only matters for immature punks who care more about themselves than the ring. Wade didn’t try to be the #1 dude… he just busted his ass and did his best to create plays… to put pressure on the D. You gonna blame the loss on Wade because he played his ass off, and remove any blame on James? If James has a lot of pride, he didn’t show it in that series. He turtled-up. He crawled into his shell. But it’s Wade’s fault for being assertive. How dare he try so hard. He should have lowered his play to Lebron’s level, or even lower, so that Lebron could be the top dog. Hell, Bosh was more assertive than Lebron, and Bosh is a woman.
October 4th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
JBaller says:
Agree with Jay…
October 4th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Conor O. says:
Those of you who actually believe that James embarrassed himself on purpose are complete morons.