Kevin Durant Says LeBron James “Can Do Whatever He Wants”

Recently, the ostensible front-runners in the Greatest Basketball Player Alive non-debate,* LeBron James and Kevin Durant, exchanged pleasantries through the media concerning shot selection. James told ESPN a couple days ago he was “jealous” of Kevin Durant’s offensive freedom because KD can jack more shots. When Durant was told of the comments, he responded rhetorically before implicitly acknowledging it’s ridiculous to think James has any such restrictions on his own game.

James told ESPN:

“I get jealous sometimes when I look over at KD and he’s like 16-for-32 (from the field) and then 14-for-34. …Man.”

“There are games when I have it going, and then at the end of the game, I’m like, damn, I shot just 12-for-16? Why don’t I get up at least six or seven more? I definitely notice it.”

Here’s what KD said when Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman read the comments back to Durant:

“What he say?” Durant asked, rhetorically.

“How can I not see it? It’s been on CNN. It’s been on ABC, FOX Sports. Man, it’s been everywhere. Ya’ll blowing that out of proportion, man. I mean, I’m pretty sure, matter of fact, I’m 100 percent sure LeBron can do whatever he wants.”

Durant is right. James might being averaging a career-low 16.2 shot attempts per game this season, but he’s shooting north of 58 percent on the year, a career-high, and if he really wanted to, he could take 30 shots a game. But why would he want to?

This whole thing is inane, but doubly so when you factor in the fact Durant recently said he needs to shoot less. Russell Westbrook is out, so KD is shooting more. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

On the other hand, James is attempting to win his third consecutive championship, and regular season MVP, but he’s got Chris Bosh and — when healthy — birthday boy Dwyane Wade to handle some of the offensive load. That was supposed to be the reason James scorned his hometown Cavaliers to sign in Miami during that chaotic summer of 2010: so he could get some help towards his first NBA Title. Basically, James should stop talking about this as soon as possible before he puts his foot in his mouth again.

*James is the best player in the world…for now.

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