Kevin Durant has reached the point where he’s playing out his NBA career as a living legend of the game. That is a level of greatness very few can reach over their career, and Durant has achieved that. When KD was asked about his Mount Rushmore in an interview, he named the obvious suspects like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant.
As KD struggled to name the fourth player, his backcourt of Devin Booker and Bradley Beal came in with the assists to proudly name Durant for the fourth spot.
Kevin Durant: “Michael Jordan, LeBron, Kobe Bryant…”
Devin Booker: “Kevin Durant”
Bradley Beal: “I like that. I like that.”
A Mount Rushmore would usually refer to either the greatest players or the most influential players. It’s cool that Booker and Beal named their teammate when he was struggling to find a fourth name, but it’s hard to say that KD would actually earn that spot.
If we’re talking about on-court achievements, players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal, and quite a few more would possibly be a better fourth name next to MJ, LeBron, and Kobe.
If we’re talking about influence on the game, Durant has a better case. But his case wouldn’t be better than Stephen Curry, who is the architect of offense in the modern NBA. Even Durant’s game was essentially born out of what Dirk Nowitzki had already been doing for a decade in the league at the time of KD being drafted.
Durant is a legend of the game, but he may need to earn a few more accolades before the end of his career to be put into these conversations by people beyond his teammates.
Suns Struggling To Stay In The Playoff Race
The Suns fell to an embarrassing loss tonight, as they couldn’t defend their home court against a Memphis Grizzlies squad without Ja Morant. Phoenix blew a 13-point lead at home to lose the contest 121-115. This breaks their recent momentum of stringing together wins to rise out of the play-in tournament, but this loss puts them right back in the mix as the 9th seed in the West.
Booker led the team with 24 points while Durant scored 23 points. Bradley Beal was the worst-performing Suns starter on the night, ending with 12 points and being outplayed by both Grayson Allen and Jusuf Nurkic on the night.
Thankfully for Phoenix, it looks like the Warriors and Lakers might just be worse and can’t capitalize on these losses to bounce them out of the top 10. The Suns are two games ahead of the 10th-seeded Warriors and could be 2.5 games ahead of the Lakers if the purple and gold team loses to the Clippers tonight.
They are falling behind the likes of the Rockets, Pelicans, Mavericks, and Kings, which will make Phoenix’s hope of a top-six seed this season very hard to achieve.