Kobe Bryant Has Become Kevin Durant's Spirit Animal
LOS ANGELES — Kevin Durant knows his Chicago Bulls-Oklahoma City Thunder game is the mere opening act before the NBA Finals rematch and Christmas showcase between LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers and Stephen Curry's Golden State Warriors.
Being the snow-crunching reindeer ahead of Santa's big scene isn't all bad.
It's just not what All-Stars truly aspire to.
Durant knows Cavs-Dubs was the most-watched NBA championship series since Michael Jordan's heyday in 1998, and he certainly knows how deeply it stung him that James and Curry got to play for everything while he was just trying to walk normally after a third surgery on his right foot.
We know Durant knows because he tells us how he feels. The 2014 NBA MVP flat-out said he was "jealous" of 2012-13 MVP James and 2015 MVP Curry. Durant has a mind, and he speaks it.
There's realness to Kevin Durant these days. He has effectively muted what was expected to be an epic free-agent distraction by owning the discussion and authentically staying in the moment.
And as wonderfully as Curry is playing, Durant's scoring efficiency this season has been just as ridiculous—he's getting to the free-throw line more than Curry and shooting better from the field, per Basketball-Reference.com. Even more overlooked is that Durant is now playing consistently elite defense.
As uber-competitive Kobe Bryant plays his final Christmas Day game in the late-game afterthought matchup between the lowly Lakers and disappointing Clippers, Bryant's fans would be wise to consider Durant as their new favorite player—no matter how captivating Curry is or the success James has had.
Durant left Staples Center late Wednesday night after dominating a delightful head-to-head matchup with Bryant (and pointedly telling him he traveled on the play where Bryant pump-faked him into a foul). Durant was carrying a certain rival player's game-worn white high-top Nikes after the 120-85 domination. Under the gold swoosh, above the purple sole, was this inscription in black marker:
"To KD: Be the greatest. #24"
Bryant and Durant were photographed having dinner together in Oklahoma City last week, and since 2012, Bryant has increasingly served as an advisor to Durant in the pursuit of that greatness—because of the respect the former has for the latter's approach.
"He plays with no fear," Bryant said.
Besides that and all of the fundamental scoring expertise, Durant is following another model of Bryant's career arc: initially propagating a politically correct, good-guy image in his early years before letting his guard down and letting fly with what's true to him later on.
Durant tells us while supposedly easing back into action in August that he feels he's the best player in the world. He tells us how his foot had an unknown "crack" in it. He tells us Stephen A. Smith is "lying" about the Lakers being Durant's primary free-agent preference if he leaves Oklahoma City. He tells us he "didn't like" Wizards fans in Washington recruiting him instead of supporting their team.
Durant also tells us he didn't appreciate our takes on Bryant, saying: "I've been disappointed this year because you guys (media) treated him like s--t. He's a legend, and all I hear is about how bad he's playing, how bad he's shooting, time for him to hang it up. You guys treated one of our legends like s--t, and I didn't really like it."
There is no doubt Durant would be the ideal person to whom Bryant could pass his Lakers torch and salary slot.
"Me and him are great friends," Durant said.
Even more important, unlike the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe, Durant yearns to be fully challenged, both in pressure and responsibility.
Durant mainly wants to win, however, so besides Oklahoma City failing to prevail this June, the Lakers would most likely have to recruit another top free agent (Al Horford? Hassan Whiteside? Nicolas Batum? DeMar DeRozan? Joakim Noah?) to come with Durant.
Durant says all that is for him to figure out another day. And because he dares to tell us what he thinks, we believe him on this.
He's also playing like someone wholly focused on today. And he's actually itching to face the Bulls on Christmas because he regrets the Thunder's loss in Chicago back in the sixth game of the season. He has made a lot of progress since then, with Billy Donovan's vision for how easily Durant can create gimme shots for teammates sometimes while being a dominant scorer most times.
So as Bryant, the NBA's all-time leading Christmas scorer, wraps it up, be ready for something special from Durant.
He is, in fact, close to the NBA's leading per-game Christmas scorer. (Durant is averaging 31.8 points on Christmas, just behind Jerry West's 32.2 among players who've played at least five times on the holiday.)
Word out of Cleveland is that LeBron is none too thrilled with what a Steph-fest this NBA season has become.
Durant will still have a say in that one, too.
All quotes are firsthand unless otherwise noted. Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
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