He gave a fascinating reason why.
Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant boldly took aim at critics in a recent interview with the Arizona Republic and questioned why isn’t he brought up more when fans debate who the GOAT is. Naturally, the internet had a field day with his comments and proceeded to explain why he isn’t in that realm. Even his former teammate joined in.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green was part of the team’s core that recruited Durant to the Warriors in 2016 where he proceeded to win two NBA titles and two Finals MVPs. But like so many other fans did, Green used the fact that Durant joined a team with several star players as an argument against him.
“Obviously, I’m not one that’s going to be like, ‘KD’s championships aren’t real,’” Green said on The Draymond Green Show. “Stop it. There’s no championship that’s not real.”
Draymond explains why KD isn't in the GOAT conversation yet ???? @TheVolumeSports pic.twitter.com/DaNw2Fyy8R
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 23, 2024
“Steph [Curry] didn’t get the credit that Steph gets today until 2022 when he led this team to a championship and won the Finals MVP,” he added. “When all else was failing, Steph said, ‘All right, fellas. Come on, let’s go there.’ Period. You gotta go do what Steph did to get to that conversation.”
Green’s take and perspective are interesting, to say the least. The biggest criticism of Stephen Curry over the course of his first three championships was that he didn’t win Finals MVP in any of those teams’ runs. Andre Iguodala was named Finals MVP in 2015 and Durant was given the trophy in the team’s 2017 and 2018 title runs.
However, Green is suggesting that Durant needs to carry a less established team to a title—essentially saying doing it with the Warriors wasn’t good enough. But when Durant was on a team with Curry and won the Finals MVP over him, that wasn’t worthy of praise. It was also held against Curry. Green is supporting his longtime teammate, but it’s a curious train of thought.
