“Kevin Durant has 44% of the vote, but Stephen Curry is at 13%”: LeBron James finishes second in poll for ‘Best NBA player’ among 118 retired NBA veterans

Akash Murty | 16/12/2021
"Kevin Durant has 44% of the vote, but Stephen Curry is at 13%": LeBron James finishes second in poll for 'Best NBA player' among 118 retired NBA veterans

According to some former NBA players, Kevin Durant is the best player in the league as of now. Let’s find out who the real experts believe is the best to take the last shot?

In sports media, there are some real experts and then there are experts who get paid the most by the big media companies for just putting their absurd clickbaity takes. They are also responsible for crowning the most important awards in the NBA.

These days more and more former athletes are coming up to take these roles, and they are calling out the absurdities of the top paid analysts like Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless. Who else can give us the best picture of the game and its whereabouts as is, than former NBA players?

Also read: “Stephen Curry has overtaken LeBron James??? This is your dumbest ever take!!!”: ESPN’s rookie analyst and NBA vet JJ Redick destroys his fellow panelist Stephen A Smith after another braindead take

The Athletic surveyed 118 former NBA players before the start of the 2021-22 season and asked them various questions about today’s game. Who is the best player in the NBA right now? Which current player would you want to take a shot with the game on the line? These were some of the questions they were asked.

Kevin Durant is the Best Player in the NBA: Former players

While the other categories of questions had close gaps between the answers, these two questions had a rather clear winner. Kevin Durant topped both, winning at least 44% votes in each.

According to 44.2 percent of former players, the Slim Reaper is the best player in the NBA. Whereas just 31.6 percent think LeBron James is the best. That’s no knock on the 37-year-old who is still going strong in the 19th year. But KD is playing some otherworldly basketball. The 4-time scoring champ is averaging close to a 30-point game to lead the league in scoring.

Durant also is the first choice of 48.9 percent of former players to take the last shot with the game on the line. Even though he missed a famous last shot against the Bucks, which had almost every Bucks fan’s heart in their mouths, Durant is a career 49-38-88 shooter.

The 11-time All-Star was the go-to finisher for the Warriors, who won back-to-back championships against LeBron’s Cleveland. KD won the Finals MVP both those years.

That Warriors team also had Stephen Curry, who was happy to let KD do the job when they were teammates. The freshly official best shooter of the league got the second-highest vote in this category, with 33.2 percent of people going with The Chef for the last shot.

Also read: “Kevin Durant is just a title or two away from living in the Kobe, Jordan, and LeBron conversation”: ‘Ball Don’t Stop’ podcast makes a case for the two-time Finals MVP for the Mount Rushmore of the NBA

These two questions pretty much sum up who is the best player in the league. Let Stephen A Smith believe Curry’s up to challenge Michael Jordan, when he is not even close to Kevin Durant, according to the real experts.

Post Edited By: Akash Murty
Kevin Durant LeBron James Steph Curry

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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