NBA Finals 2012: Kevin Durant Must Lead OKC to Title to Surpass LeBron James
If Kevin Durant wants to overtake LeBron James as the best player in the National Basketball Association, he needs to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a series victory in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.
Durant will never be looked at in the same light as James if he can't prevent the Heat from winning their first title of the LeBron era.
After Durant's masterful performance in the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, there have been plenty of people asking if he is better than James. Those debates will be stomped out if Durant can't carry his team and make sure they hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy when all is said and done.
James already has a leg up on Durant, being that he has already won three MVP awards. This is the second consecutive time he's led his team's charge to the NBA Finals. He's run roughshod on the league like nothing we've ever seen before (sans Michael Jordan), and he's showing no signs of slowing down.
But there's one thing that levels the playing field: he hasn't won an NBA championship.
Durant has won the last three NBA scoring titles, surpassing the 30-point average threshold in the year he won his first. He doesn't have the same kind of physical gifts that LeBron has been afforded, but he has his own advantages.
This is LeBron's ninth season in the league, and he's yet to win a title in any of his campaigns. Despite his personal accolades, he's missing the one true thing that elevates a superstar player to legendary status.
Not to mention he's the bad guy in the eyes of most NBA fans.
Durant is in the fifth season of his career. He and the Zombies fell to the Dallas Mavericks last season, but beat a Spurs team last week that was supposed to be the juggernaut of the NBA playoffs.
The Durantula is on the cusp of NBA immortality, and only LeBron and the Heat stand in his way.
Unlike James, he's the protagonist in this story. Everybody outside of South Beach is pulling for him to lead the run-and-gun Thunder to glory.
Durant doesn't have the MVP awards or as impressive as a resume as James has, but if he can edge LeBron in these NBA Finals, he's going to be looked at as the best player in the league.
There's no reason to bring up regular season accomplishments or scoring averages once the two best players in the league square off on the biggest stage in all of basketball. All that will matter is which team won, and whatever team wins will be contingent upon which of these superstars played better.
If Durant can win the title and deprive James of his only goal, he has the inside track to becoming the best NBA player of the new millennium. Tout James' abilities and statistics all you want, but if he doesn't get a title this time, he might not ever get one.
No matter which way this series goes, be it to Oklahoma City or to Miami, it will be looked at as the pivotal moment in the Durant-LeBron rivalry that will continue for the better part of the next decade.
One NBA title through five seasons looks a lot better than zero NBA titles through nine seasons.
