Kevin Durant is considered as one of the best scorers in NBA history but his legacy often gets questioned due to his inconsistent playoff runs except for the time he spent with the Golden State Warriors and Stpehen Curry.
Durant left Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016 to join the Warriors where he made it to the NBA FInals in consecutive years. After years of failure in the postseason he won two titles pairing up with Curry and Klay Thompson. But soon he left the Bay Area to join Brooklyn to form a superteam with Kyrie Irving and later even James Harden joined the Nets to form a ‘Big 3’ which everyone feared in the NBA.
But things have not gone according to plan for Kevin Durant as Harden has left for Philadelphia 76ers whereas Kyrie Irving is all set to leave the Nets as well
Recently on his podcast, NBA analyst Colin Cowherd shared the areas that are missing in Durant’s leadership that could help him win the title in the coming years. He said, “Since the turn of the millennium, look at our four dynasties. Warriors, Miami Heat, Lakers with Kobe, Spurs with Duncan. All four had the big guy at the top: Steph, LeBron, Kobe and Duncan.”
Cowherd wants KD to be a leader with his own personality and not to follow someone else because leaders can have unique ideas and mentality but at the end of the day they know how to led their team forward and keep everyone together. He wants KD to bring out that leader in him. “All four were totally unique personalities, totally unique games, but all four were leaders in their own way. That’s what KD has to graduate to,” he added.
Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant were all generational talents and exceptional leaders as well. While their playing style differed a lot their way of leadership was different too but at the end of the day they helped their team built dynasties that no one ever will forget in the NBA.
Cowherd believe that just like these four players, Kevin Durant is also exceptional and his abilities should not be limited to only doing his thing as he wants him to become that leader for the Nets.”I don’t wanna hear about this, ‘I’m just a baller.’ You’re too great of a player to just be a baller! And it’s not just about ball with you because if it was, Golden State was perfect,” he concluded.
Time and again Durant’s leadership abilities have been questioned especially with the Kyrie Irving fiasco last season. But now with Kyrie leaving the Nets, it will be interesting to see how Durant reacts to this change and whether he finally gets to lead this team or not.
