NBA Finals 2012: Why Kobe Bryant Is Flat-out Wrong About Kevin Durant's Weakness

As great as Kevin Durant has been during the 2012 NBA Finals and the rest of the postseason, he could still be better. After all, he isn't the best player in the world at this point in his career. 

Before the season, Kobe Bryant took it upon himself to point out what he thought was one of Durant's biggest flaws: "If Kevin Durant had Westbrook's by any means necessary attitude, he'd be best player on planet."

Just as he so often is with his shot selection and lack of passes to his teammates, Kobe is completely wrong here. 

There's only place for one Russell Westbrook on each team, as talented as the point guard may be. On the Oklahoma City Thunder, that player's name isn't Durant. It's, well, Russell Westbrook. 

That attitude that The Black Mamba refers to creates a certain volatility in a player's game. It may make the player with that attitude the most important player on a team, but it also forces them to balance the game-changing plays for the good with a few game-losing plays every now and then. 

If anybody should understand this, it should be Kobe. 

The Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard has earned a spot in the minds of many NBA fans as the game's premier player in crunch time, despite the bevy of articles that prove Kobe isn't elite when it comes to being clutch. 

We've come to think of Kobe as a game-winning machine when he takes the last shot because of our selective attention and confirmation bias. We're force-fed videos and highlights of him making the last shots while we fail to either see or remember the many that he's missed. 

Because we want to believe that Kobe is clutch, the successes stick out in the forefront of our brains and completely trump the failures. In a way, it's similar to baseball in that one walk-off grand slam can trump the last five strikeouts to end previous games. 

While we may not remember every time Kobe has missed at the end of a game, you can be sure that he does. However, Kobe puts aside those thoughts when he steps onto the court and fires up shot after shot, seemingly without a conscience?

Is that really the player that Kobe wants Durant to become? It's the player that Westbrook is on track to be, and his unpredictable, explosive nature during the fourth quarter and throughout the game allows Durant to play in a way best suited to his skills. 

Durant himself has admitted this: 

"

We're worse when I take more shots. Like I said, [Bayless] doesn't know a thing. I don't think he watches us. I think he just looks at the stats. And traditionally, a point guard is not supposed to take more shots than everybody else on the team. But we're better when he does do that and he's aggressive. And I'm better when I'm out there facilitating, rebounding, defending and being more efficient on my shots with less shots.

"

The way that Durant is playing the game on offense is perfect right now. Basketball isn't an individual sport, but rather a team sport in which all actions affect the other players on the court. 

Hogging the ball and insisting that he take ill-advised shots because he's the premier scorer in the NBA would not only take away from that status as the prime scorer, but also serve as a detriment to his teammates. 

The Thunder wouldn't be as dominant if Westbrook wasn't allowed to fly all over the court with reckless abandon. If he was forced to pull a LeBron James and go stand in the corner while Durant played Atlanta Hawk-style isolation ball, he'd mentally check out of the game and the Thunder would lose one of its biggest weapons. 

OKC has been outscoring opponents by 5.13 points in second halves during the postseason and the margin jumps up to 6.46 in wins. That type of success doesn't happen with a seriously flawed offensive strategy in late-game situations. 

Plus, it's not like Durant has been struggling late in the game. The scorer has maintained his efficiency in the fourth quarter while taking over in the correct situations. This, above all, is something that the man who Kobe recently called a "6'11" version of me" likes about his own game: 

"

I pride myself as an efficient player. I wasn't efficient that year. I didn't take efficient shots. I wasn't locked in as a player. I was just going through the motions sometimes. That next year I just came back more focused and preparing myself every single game to get better, and film sessions and shootarounds to get locked in. It helped. Ever since then I've been shooting the ball a little better and taking good shots.

"

In a way, Durant does have the instinct that the original Kobe quote referenced, that "by any means necessary attitude." While Westbrook's cutthroat nature refers to his ability to generate his own offense, Durant's just specializes in winning basketball games. 

The difference, which Kobe failed to recognize, is the reason why Durant is still playing and Kobe is in Germany getting his knees worked on.