Upload this on r/sports Kevin Durant on the constant commitment of playing professional basketball at an elite level: “Some people say ‘I want to go play baseball’ and then want to come back (Michael Jordan). And some want to play 22 straight NBA seasons (LeBron James)”

21 comments

1. yeah fair enough kevin. and some people say “i don’t have an issue losing in the finals” and others say “i’m going to win once i’m there and i’m going to carry my team doing it” you see how dumb of a comparison that is? do better, kevin.

2. One guy didn’t go team shopping for a ring. People actually came to play with him. No disrespect to KD, dude is a hall of famer, and what he’s done for the Olympics team, but dude never reached the level of Jordan.

3. Isn’t there a hypothesis that Jordan left for a bit at the NBAs request due to gambling reasons anyways?

4. Wow they said that about Jordan when people forget he went to play baseball to honor his MURDERED father’s wish of seeing him play baseball.

5. Some people so thirsty they tryna drink strangers’ bath water and then throw rocks at legends … 

6. Every players’ goal is to play for 20+ years? Since when? I thought the goal was to win as many rings as possible? Or MVP’s as possible? So now that both players are at the end of their respective careers, and most likely won’t get another ring or MVP, playing as many years as you can is the goal that all players are trying to reach?? What?? They’re both trying to get extra credit when the exam is almost over.

7. Fuck LaBron forever.

8. We all know why Mike had to take a pause. Stop playin.

9. I haven’t been a KD fan since he left OKC, and generally find him to be unbearably corny.

   But I get his point here – there’s no blueprint for greatness. Players are doing it their own way. Some will play forever, some step away and come back. Some are multi dimensional, others are not (Steph is incredible, the greatest shooter to play, but I don’t trust his defense) It is what it is.

   I’m actually really liking these conversations, we never got these perspectives from great players until way after they retired.

10. I actually like Durant and pray he’s just joking…

    Sitting next to LeBron and saying that Does Not look good, though. I litterly cringed. Almost makes me glad I don’t pay attention to sports media in the off-season.

11. I would love to see how these stars like LeBron, KD, Curry, Harden, PG could survive the basketball of the 80s and 90s. That level of defense simply wore out the athletes’ bodies. I won’t even mention the younger generation of players, I highly doubt that any of them would survive the Jordan Rules from the Pistons.

12. Chicago could get more players which grow up with MJ saga, but we failed

13. KD is already despicable but now this just makes him look worse in my eyes.

14. 22 years and still chasing what MJ did

    LeBron is definitely up there with Kevin willis though…

15. Kd is insufferable , he ruins the vibes of every team he’s been on and got carried by Curry to his only rings.

16. I dont see what the big deal is lol. He’s talking about the mental and physical toll of striving to be the best and how you have to be ready to commit every year.

    MJ completed the first ever threepeat, and retired for a variety of reasons including personal things like his father passing, but mostly because he didn’t enjoy it anymore. He got a statue labeling him the GOAT before the other 3 rings, back when the goat debate wasnt purely about ring counting (Kareem had 6 and Bill Russell had ELEVEN) because he had shown in other ways how much of a superior player he was at that point.

    MJ didnt want to commit to that level of dedication anymore and took a sabbatical, then came back when he was ready to commit again. its not a diss to point that out when talking about commitment, its just the reality. I get it doesnt help the MJ mythologizers argument but he was human too, even if he was an innovator.

17. I respect a man who is a rounded out person with multiple interests instead of just spending their entire life doing one thing.

    **Especially** when they did another person’s “one thing” better than them despite spending less time on it………………..

    Not just a “fuck Lebron, Jordan is the GOAT” statement, I’ve respected Andrew Luck for years for having similar sentiments (and also I’ve found Tom Brady pathetic for many years for being so obsessed with football he let it ruin his marriage, and also for being a cheater.

    Also it’s kinda funny Steve Nash is there considering Durant the diva forced the Nets to fire a great coach in Kenny Atkinson to hire Steve Nash and then forced Nash out after less than 2 full seasons.

18. Jordan ran from the grind

19. jordan’s legacy got boosted by not playing basketball when he was physically capable of playing MVP ball [1]. twice.

    that’s how good he was, and how masterfully he chose to retire. 

    [1] okay, technically MJ was probably gonna miss a lot of that post-second-threepeat season due to his cigar cutter severed finger tendon. and he wasn’t gonna be a Bull and would’ve had to find a landing spot on a contender (would’ve been the craziest FA ever tbh). I think there’s a case that MJ deliberately retired on top the second time. He saw the writing on the wall – it wasn’t likely he would’ve won it all the next season. 

20. Let’s see lebron hit 220 in AA. Fucking Ohio trash

21. When great players realize they’ll never achieve what Jordan has, they find other metrics to compare themselves