Kevin Durant follows LeBron James’ race to the top with admiration

A few years after the arrival of LeBron James in the league, Kevin Durant has also embodied one of the faces of the NBA for the past fifteen years. The two superstars have long been compared, opposed, in particular through their profiles and characteristics, yet very different.

As for the race for the title of best scorer in history, however, there is no debate, LeBron James being far ahead of his counterpart. KD has indeed become the 18th best scorer in history this week, overtaking Kevin Garnett and his 26,071 points, but remains very far from the “King”, who has left to dethrone Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by the end of the regular season in order to to become the league’s all-time leading scorer.

A historic feat

An announced historic accomplishment that commands admiration, and in particular that of Kevin Durant, who appreciates being able to follow this race for a unique record.

“To be number 1 in any field, when there are 8 billion people in the world, as we learned last week, and in his case, to be number 1 all time in as a scorer, I’m sure he will feel a lot of emotions., did he declare on the sidelines of the game against Indiana. “Being in an era where we’re going to see this live is also pretty cool. You probably can’t imagine the emotions and feelings he and his family and friends will be going through, but it’s cool to see him up close.”

For his part, KD assures that he was never motivated by the desire to finish as high as possible on this list.

“I never really thought about it. I heard the discussions, especially early in my career, when I was doing things that the LeBrons, the Michael Jordans had done in terms of scoring, but I know how hard it is to do that consistently, year after year, day after day. Many things are beyond your control. I just try to come in and be the best version of myself, and whatever happens next happens.

No regrets for KD

For some scorers at heart like Kobe Bryant, this race for numbers has nevertheless been able to constitute a source of daily motivation. In the podcast “All The Smoke” broadcast shortly before his death, the “Black Mamba”, 4th on the list with 33,643 points, had even confided in having resented his first coach, Del Harris, for not having enough. played in his early years.

“It disgusts me, even today! In the end, what numbers could I have achieved? Because everyone comes back to that, the number of career points scored”, he confided to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.

At the end of his career, Kevin Durant will not feel the same frustration, because he never specifically wanted to overtake another player or set a particular goal on this point.

“I never thought about it that way. The idea is just to keep accumulating the good days every day. Be consistent in who I am as a player, and we’ll see what happens down the road.”he continued. “That’s what I expect every day. Whoever I pass and whatever records I break for myself, it doesn’t matter. I just try to get up and be available, to be the best I can be every day”.

As a reminder, LeBron James is 1,055 points short of equaling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record. If we take his average this season, at 24.5 points per game, he will still need about 43 games to achieve this.

As for Kevin Durant (34), hampered by injuries, he is on his side 12,277 points from first place. At his current career average, a little higher than that of LeBron James (27.23 against 27.11), it would take him more than 450 games to catch KAJ. That’s another five and a half full seasons at this level…