Kevin Durant tops LeBron James as NBA's best player, according to former NBA stars
Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant is the best player in the NBA, according to a new poll of former players.
Ahead of the 2021-22 season, The Athletic surveyed 118 retired NBA players to learn what they think about today's game. The 11-time All-Star was named the best player by 44.2% of those who voted, and he was named the most clutch player in the league.
LeBron James — who just rang up a historic triple-double performance on Sunday — finished second behind Durant in the best player category (31.6%) but finished a distant fourth in the clutch category, garnering only 4% of the vote.
Through 26 games, Durant leads the league in points per game with 29.6 — his highest PPG average since 2013-14, when he won his fourth scoring title — and is playing 36.9 minutes per game, good for second-most in NBA.
He is shooting 52.9% on the season and adding 7.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. What's more, Durant's 51-point game Sunday against the Detroit Pistons is the highest single-game point total from any player this season.
"His offensive skills — jump shooting, ball-handling, free-throw shooting, offensive rebounding, passing, posting up, movement without the ball, basketball acumen — plus his height make him almost unstoppable," former Los Angeles Lakers forward Marv Roberts told Bleacher Report.
As far as "The King" goes, James is averaging 26.1 points, 5.9 rebounds — his lowest RPG average since his 2003-04 rookie season — and 6.9 assists through 17 games.
On Thursday's "Undisputed," Shannon Sharpe discussed the results of the poll and shared his top five players, putting neither "Durantula" nor 'Bron up top.
"The mere fact that … retired players think LeBron is the second-best player in the league in Year 19 is just unheard of," Sharpe said. "I would say Giannis [Antetokounmpo] is the best, K.D. is two, [Stephen Curry] is three, Bron is four, Nikola Jokić five.
"What's going unnoticed is that Giannis is averaging 27 points, 12 rebounds, six assists. He did knock Kevin Durant out of the playoffs last year with a monster Eastern Conference finals. … Went to Brooklyn and did what he did in his house. We just disregard that."
Shannon Sharpe shares his top five NBA players in response to former players ranking KD as No. 1 I UNDISPUTED
The reigning Finals MVP, Antetokounmpo was the only other player to receive at least 10% of the votes after Durant (13.6%). Curry (3.5%), Joel Embiid and Jokić (both 1.8%) rounded out the top six.
The "Greek Freak" is one of just two players (Jokić) in the top 10 of both PPG and RPG this season. He leads the NBA in free throws made (179) and free throws attempted (263) while shooting 52.9% from the floor.
Sharpe also had some thoughts on James being considered fourth in the clutch category.
"In go-ahead, in game-tying shots in the final 10 seconds of the playoffs, that's when the pressure's highest … [Damian Lillard] is No. 1. He's 42% on 5-of-12 shots. Would you believe that LeBron James is No. 2? He's 9-of-23 or 39%.
"So, this notion that LeBron James isn't clutch is just not true. It's just that repetition of disinformation gets repeated enough, and it gets thought of as being true."
There's a lot of basketball left to be played this season. And maybe the retired players will have to pull out their ballots once again.
But for now, it appears King James has been knocked off his throne.
