“Kevin Durant would drop 50 if I really dueled him”: Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo gives huge props to the Nets superstar following their epic duel

Giannis Antetokounmpo shows huge respect to Kevin Durant, calling the Brooklyn superstar “one of the greatest scorers to ever play this game”.

Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks are easily two of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference. Both powerhouses are looking to be legit title contenders having some generational players leading the squad.

On Sunday night, a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks hosted Kevin Durant and his Brooklyn Nets at the Fiserv Forum. The Nets entered Sunday’s game, winning 5 out of the 7 games. While Milwaukee winning 4 out of their 6 games.

As expected to be, the match was action-packed which went down to the wire. However, it was the Bucks who managed to grab a narrow 117-114 win over Steve Nash’s Brooklyn team. It was the reigning back-to-back MVP who finished the game with a season-high 49 points on an incredible 21/36 shooting night to shadow KD’s incredible 42-points and 10-rebounds double-double performance.

Also Read: Skip Bayless lauds Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant for their excellent Bucks vs Nets duel

“I’ve been looking up to KD since I was 15”: Giannis Antetokounmpo shows respect to Kevin Durant

Post the game, The Greek Freak showed huge respect to the 2014 MVP by calling him “one of the greatest scorers to ever play”. Giannis lauded KD:

“I was not going back-and-forth with KD. Nobody in this world can go back-and-forth with KD. He’s been one of the greatest scorers to ever play this game. That’s not the game plan you want to go against. You’re going to his game. That’s where he wants to go. You have to be able to do it together, as a unit, as a team, to be able to guard him, to make it tough on him.”

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Giannis also revealed how he idolized KD growing up despite their dissimilar style of play.

“The way he handles the ball and gets to his spot is unbelievable. The best I’ve ever seen in my life. But yeah, I look up to him, I’m not gonna lie. When I was young — 16, 15 — I remember watching him play in the Finals, and I was like, ‘Damn, this guy is really good.’

“But [we have] different games. I enjoy playmaking, finding my teammates, putting them in positions to be successful. … But you have to appreciate players like that because you don’t see them often. There’s one-of-a-generation talent. I’ll steal as much as I can from his game, as much as I’m capable of doing, because there’s some stuff that only he can do. … Growing up, I always looked up to him.”

Also Read: Brooklyn Nets overtake LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers as USA’s most hated NBA team

With less than 9 games remaining for both teams, they would want to finish the season strong. They would hope to enter the postseason grabbing that number 1 seed of the Eastern Conference.