LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers is defended by Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors during the first half in Game 5 of the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
PHOENIX (AP) — Basketball generations are defined by the stars inside them, a tendency that took a few decades for the National Basketball Association to catch on.
It has been widely stated that here is where Larry Bird and Magic Johnson transformed the league and how we perceive the game in the 1980s. Consider how we would have processed the struggles between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell two decades ago in the present day.
There have been many more all-time greats to enter and exit the league in the last 40 years. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal and so on. But even with the mystical nature of the NBA’s storytelling, it will be lucky to find another Bird and Magic, a rivalry between two athletes mastering the sport at the same time with dozens of other spicy subplots we don’t have time to run through. HBO has enough to be giving its own retelling of it — in creative fashion — with a look at those Los Angeles Lakers in “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.”
The hunt for something truly unique continues. That, however, should not be interpreted negatively. Because of this, Bird and Magic will stand the test of time.
But the best we’ve gotten since Kevin Durant and LeBron James in terms of two individuals reaching the pinnacle of basketball together in a way that ultimately requires them to match up and prove who is better.
And we haven’t seen it in five years, a wait that will either end or continue after the Phoenix Suns’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Durant’s health for the second game of a back-to-back is unknown as of Thursday night, despite his club having already wrapped up a postseason spot, while James is labelled as questionable for a game in which the Lakers are likely to need a win to escape the play-in. If they both play, it will end a 12-game stretch in which the stars have missed each other in their respective teams’ battles.
Durant was surprised when he heard it had been that long.
“We’ve been through a lot of injuries, a lot of unfortunate situations,” he said Tuesday. “Anything can happen but we just move forward and hopefully we get a chance to be on the court Friday.”
Unfortunately, as basketball fans, we have to wonder how many more times we will have the opportunity to see it. While I believe James will continue to play at a high level until he demonstrates otherwise like the cyborg he is (even if it takes him into his 40s), he is 38 years old. Durant, who is still in his prime and on a similar track, is 34.
The great majority of individual rivalries in today’s NBA do not contain bad blood. There is a common notion that it does not qualify as a “rivalry” unless it is poured into the cauldron to create the delectable narrative stew for all to enjoy. Those are no longer visible.
But what is never going to dissipate is the burning desire from competitors to show they are the best, and they get that fulfilled the most when facing off against the others who are in the conversation. Most of the faceoffs are overflowing with respect.
That is the case for Durant and James.
“It’s been amazing just being in the league the same time as him, somebody who is the ultimate competitor,” Durant said Tuesday. “Somebody that you (are) inspired by just from him, just seeing what he does on the day-to-day, but also got the opportunity to be on … Team USA so you see different sides of him. So there’s always been a mutual respect amongst us two and it’s always been great battles when we play against each other.”
At the same time, these celebrity disputes invariably feature a few instances of “Man, screw this guy.” Fans may understand that it stems from that competitive attitude, as evidenced by the few appearances we’ve already seen from Devin Booker and Luka Doncic.
And the result is magical.
Sure, Shohei Ohtani was more concerned with finishing the World Baseball Classic and securing a championship for Japan. At the same time, did the best baseball player in the world welcome the opportunity to do so against his MLB teammate Mike Trout, another guy some label as such?
Of course he did! It’s what makes them so great!
Because Durant and James were in opposite conferences the majority of their careers, we never got to see this during the highest stakes of postseason basketball unless it happened in the NBA Finals.
As it turns out, they were both there for the other’s first title.
James and the Miami Heat got the better of Durant in 2012 for James’ against a young Oklahoma City team that surely had a few in its future (Surely! What could go wrong?!).
Five years later, Durant got his second crack at James for all the marbles with arguably the best team we’ve ever seen, that 2017 iteration of the Golden State Warriors. Durant had spent the season not so much deferring to Steph Curry and company, but more than willingly playing inside Golden State’s system while not doing the, “Actually, I’m the superstar and this is my team now” thing. But once it was him and James again, that alpha energy oozed off him.
Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.0 steals per game across a five-game 2017 Finals and shot 55.6%.
James, meanwhile, posted a ho-hum 33.6 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, one block and 1.4 steals a night on 56.4% shooting. It was some of the highest quality basketball from two individuals we’ve ever seen at the top level of the game. Durant had the better team and was just better in his own right, too. He deservedly got his ring and Finals MVP.
It only took a year for the next NBA Finals encounter, and James responded with one of the finest postseason performances in sports history. Game 1, an overtime loss for his Cleveland Cavaliers, saw James play a 51-point performance that he would break his hand in rage over losing as Golden State went on to sweep and Durant got to double-fist trophies again.
Perhaps Round 4 comes for the first time in the same conference. Entering play on Friday, there’s still an outside shot (4.8% according to Basketball Reference) of Los Angeles getting the fifth seed to face fourth-seeded Phoenix, and maybe a meeting could happen later in the bracket.
The pair was previously in the West together for just one season, the 2018-19 campaign when James’ Lakers missed the playoffs. Durant left for Brooklyn that offseason and now they are reunited on the same coast this year.
Including the postseason, we’ve seen this matchup 35 times, per Stathead. James holds the slight record edge at 20-15, thanks to a 15-6 mark in the regular season to offset Durant’s 9-5 advantage in the playoffs.
As you would expect, they are rarely anything but awesome. Of those 70 combined outings for the two, 56 include performances with at least 25 points and they both average nearly 30 per game.