Like many NBA stars of the modern era, when it wasn’t working out for Kevin Durant with the Oklahoma City Thunder, he jumped ship to the “super team” Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. With Durant in the fold, they would win two of the next three titles (2017, 2018).
Monday on First Take saw Charles Barkley discussing this period of Durant’s career. After Stephen A. Smith asked the NBA analyst whether he would equate Durant joining the Warriors with LeBron James’ famous “Big Three” stint with the Miami Heat, Barkley didn’t mince his words.
He thinks there’s no difference between the situations.
While noting Durant would get mad at him for the take about winning a title on his own merits, Barkley took it a step further. He proceeded to speak not only for James but also for the late Kobe Bryant and how the two greats apparently wanted to prove they could eventually win titles on their own.
Barkley said he’s still holding Durant to the criteria that he has to win a championship by himself.
Charles Barkley says there is no difference between LeBron going to the Heat and KD going to the Warriors 👀 pic.twitter.com/bwJWslatnD
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 27, 2023
Never mind that when James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, he had Kyrie Irving. Or that when Bryant won his fourth and fifth titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, he had Pau Gasol. It seemed like Barkley assumed he knew what the two superstars were thinking in those moments.
Durant, now a member of the super team Phoenix Suns, didn’t lose sight of this. In what might be the first episode of another back-and-forth with Barkley, he responded on Twitter accordingly:
I don’t remember bron saying this…somebody link me to the article https://t.co/Ze3z7b9vN2
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 27, 2023
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Phew. Durant isn’t wrong. For Barkley’s criticism of him to hold up along these lines, James and Bryant will have had to explicitly share these opinions. It doesn’t appear that they did.
Barkley can be free to tear down Durant’s accomplishments if he likes. But that doesn’t mean the prolific scorer will neglect to point out double standards when he sees them.
