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The NBA, the best basketball league in the world is experiencing a generational change. Immersed in the play-offs for the ring, JA Morant or Doncic are some of the players who are standing out this season, while others like Kevin Durant and LeBron James have said goodbye to the play-offs in the second round, a historic milestone, something that has not happened for 17 years. Specifically, Durant was eliminated in the first round and LeBron did not even qualify.
Durant and LeBron have met in three NBA Finals since 2005., Kevin Durant being chosen as the best player in two of them, the two he managed to win with the Oklahoma City Thunder. For his part, LeBon James beat him in the 2012 final, when he played for the Miami Heat.
At the moment LeBron James is 37 and Kevin Durant is 33., ages that suggest that the chances of a new championship for both have been diluted. The data does not say the same. The Lakers forward is still among the top ten players in the league, as reflected in his statistics. With 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game, ‘El Rey’ continues to be fundamental in a Lakers that hope to make war again next year, with James and Anthony Davis once again leading the team in The Angels.
Opposite case is being that of Kevin Durant. The Washington, DC-born forward hasn’t been able to lead the Nets. Durant didn’t have that leadership role on the Golden State Warriors, where he shadowed Curry as a luxury asset to the team. In Brooklyn he should be the benchmark, something that Kyrie Irving, the other player called to lead the team, has not done either. The future of the New York franchise passes from the relationship between the two players, which has suffered multiple conflicts this season, such as the one between Irving and Harden.
It is clear that a single player cannot win a ring, he needs a team to back him up, but it doesn’t look like LeBron or Durant can do it anymore. It remains to be seen what the future of both will be, because it is difficult to think that the Lakers continue to want to create a team around ‘The King James’. Logic says that LeBron’s end is closer than Durant’s because of the four-year difference between them, but with LeBron James anything is possible.
