Before Giannis Antetokounmpo came around to stamp himself as the present NBA’s most dominant force, the conversation of the league’s best player started with LeBron James and Kevin Durant for most people.
After all, they are the league’s two active career scoring leaders — all-time scoring leader in the case of James — combining for six of the nine finals MVPs from 2012-20, five of the six regular season MVPs from 2009-14 and making six All-NBA first-teams together from 2010-18.
However, the two have only played in the same conference just one year out of the 16 they’ve shared together in the NBA. When James was in the Eastern Conference with the Cavaliers and Heat, Durant was in the West with the Thunder and Warriors. A year after James moved west to LA, Durant went East to Brooklyn.
Combined with injuries, their conference hopping created a weird scenario where the two haven’t played head-to-head since 2018.
KD vs. Bron might finally happen 🤞🍿 pic.twitter.com/HgemO1NAlZ
— ESPN (@espn) February 9, 2023
This season alone, James missed both of LA’s games against Brooklyn and Durant missed the second. Durant also missed both games against LA last season. So forth and so on.
That could all change after Wednesday with Durant being traded to the Phoenix Suns. As KD and James each seek late-career titles, they’ll now have to potentially go through each other in the Western Conference. Their first potential meeting is March 22 in LA, then the teams play again April 7 in LA.
Odds favor the Suns to come out the West, creating an unfamiliar road block for James just as it appeared the Lakers were gaining some traction with their own trade deadline move.
Durant and James have met in several finals, with James’ Heat beating the Thunder once and Durant’s Warriors beating the Cavs twice. Now, that head-to-head matchup between individual giants could potentially happen sooner, and it will absolutely be must-see TV.
