“Kevin Durant, if you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talkin’ bout you a champion!”: Charles Barkley questions Slim Reaper’s leadership citing Warriors Chips, Shaquille O’Neal agrees

Kevin Durant is having a nightmare of a season with the Nets and Charles Barkley believes it’s because he not that great of a leader.

Greatness is typically linked with the number of championships an individual led his team to over the span of his career. While that is a solid aspect to determine whether one is the greatest of all time, it shouldn’t be a bar for greatness.

It certainly is not for most of the people in power within the NBA community because that’s how the likes of Reggie Miller, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, and many others became the NBA’s Greatest 75 players.

One of the top names among players who never won a championship is Charles Barkley. The Sixers legend and great rival of Michael Jordan never got his hands on the Larry O’Brien. And when he talks about the championship on the sets of TNT, everyone listens to it.

Also read: “Charles Barkley was jailed for five hours before being released on a $6K bond”: The Suns MVP had created bloodshed at an Orlando bar in 1997

 

Charles Barkley believes Kevin Durant didn’t lead the Warriors to the two championships

Talking about the teams underperforming in the playoffs, Inside the NBA cast came upon the Brooklyn Nets who haven’t won a single game in the playoffs and are the only team to do that.

Chuck, over the top, suggested that when championships count to measure greatness, they should only count when the individual has led his team to that championship. Otherwise, the Chuckster believes we should see the other bus riders the same as players who never rode it.

That’s undoubtedly a tremendous analogy. Only the Dubs bus from 2016 to 2019 had multiple drivers. Kevin Durant averaged well over 28 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and a block each game in both the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals.

Maybe the Slim Reaper couldn’t have done that without a team as good as them, the Dubs don’t win both those chips without him and so he is one of the drivers on that bus.

Durant is not the solely responsible guy for winning those Championships, no doubt, but the Warriors aren’t winning those two without him. So, even if the 4x scoring champ came in as an hired assassin to do a job, he was one of the biggest reasons they won those championships. And so, he was a driver in Chuck’s own narrative.

Also read: ‘Malibu’s gone Kenny, I purchased him’: Shaquille O’Neal pranks Kenny Smith by taking his dog for ransom, Charles Barkley has a good chuckle

Poor Kenny Smith had something to say against that analogy and would have thought that Shaquille O’Neal would help him out in this one like many other championship debates. But why would Shaq do that when this theory makes him look great? Even greater than Kobe Bryant.