Jalen Ramsey showed support for his fellow Los Angeles superstar LeBron James as the star cornerback fired back at people defending Kevin Durant.
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Durant and an injury riddled Nets team lost game 7 to Milwaukee, and people were quick to draw comparisons between Durant and LeBron. While some defended KD, pointing to his 53 minutes played and 48 points (the most ever in a game 7), there were some like Ramsey who took it the other way.
Before signing with the Lakers, LeBron was the king of the east. He would routinely dominate weaker opponents on his way to the Finals. In fact, since 2010, LeBron didn’t miss the Finals while being in the Eastern Conference for the next 8 years.
Jalen Ramsey made sure to remind people of this feat.
Jalen Ramsey Fires Shots At Kevin Durant, Praising Los Angeles Lakers Superstar LeBron James
While Durant played extremely well and was singlehandedly the reason the Nets were even still in the game, Ramsey wanted to make sure that people knew LeBron had been doing this for a long time too.
While LeBron often had the benefit of a healthy team, Ramsey does have somewhat of a point here. Especially in the last two years LeBron spent with Cleveland, he played without the benefit of a second star next to him.
However, the argument for the other side is much stronger. Durant clearly was a one-man army in games 5-7 after Kyrie Irving went down with an injury in game 4.
LeBron, meanwhile, played with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh for four years in Miami and then with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love for another three years in Cleveland. While Irving and Love had their fair share of injuries in the playoffs, it was nothing like what Brooklyn had to deal with.
Ramsey’s argument is completely valid for the last two years LeBron was in the eastern conference when Kyrie Irving had left for Boston and Kevin Love was playing much worse than before. However, up until then, LeBron almost definitely had the benefit of other stars.
You can point to the fact that Durant had Harden too, but Harden was clearly hobbled as he recovered from a hamstring strain. Had the Nets won game 3, there’s a good chance, Harden wouldn’t have even stepped on to the court for the next game or two.
Instead, he was forced back early and was playing pretty much the entire game (he played all of game 7 and all but two minutes in game 5, his first game back after injury). Give this Nets team some health, and they’d have likely had Milwaukee out in 5 or 6 games.
They held a 2-0 lead when Irving went down, and it’s safe to say that they would’ve held on to that lead if either Harden or Irving were at full strength. So, does Jalen Ramsey have somewhat of a point? Maybe, but the answer is leaning more toward a no than a yes.
