National Basketball Association
Skip Bayless responds to Kevin Durant: He needs 'feuds' for motivation
National Basketball Association

Skip Bayless responds to Kevin Durant: He needs 'feuds' for motivation

Updated Dec. 17, 2021 5:42 p.m. ET

Consistency is key.

And if FS1's Skip Bayless has been anything, he has been consistent in his belief Kevin Durant is the best basketball player on the planet.

Bayless has praised Durant since he was a skinny freshman at Texas, constantly making it a point to label him as the best in the world.

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After Durant's dominant 34-point performance in an overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, Bayless took to Twitter to praise the Brooklyn Nets star. As it turned out, Durant wasn't having it.

Instead of taking offense to this message from Durant, Bayless opted to respond on "Undisputed."

Bayless compared Durant's social media outbursts to Michael Jordan's contrived beefs with opposing players and coaches, a form of psychological warfare that makes the two players great.

"What have I said about Kevin Durant from the start? He can be as strange off the court — especially on social media, where he's had burner accounts before — as he is great on the court," Bayless said. 

"This weird strategy of Kevin's is, dare I say, Jordan-esque. Because what do we know about Michael Jeffery Jordan? He constantly fabricated beefs with rival players and coaches that didn't even exist."

Skip Bayless responds to Kevin Durant's tweet I UNDISPUTED

Skip Bayless says Kevin Durant "needs to motivate himself" by creating controversy.

And despite Durant's tweet, Bayless says he will not waver from his belief in Durant's abilities.

"He is the thinnest-skinned superstar I've ever seen," Bayless said. "But the reason I don't condemn him for it is because he uses that, weirdly, to fuel himself in the biggest of games."

Bayless says Durant has trouble accepting the praise and instead craves controversy to use as motivation.

"He wants to have me firing back at him to motivate him, and I'm not going to do it this time," Bayless said.

On Friday, Bayless heaped even more praise on Durant after his performance in a victory over Philadelphia on Thursday.

Skip Bayless: Kevin Durant is this year's MVP because he is in the peak of his prime I UNDISPUTED

Skip Bayless explains why he believes Kevin Durant will be this year's MVP.

"He's becoming the greatest player since Jordan," Bayless said. "I've just never seen anything like what this guy is doing."

Whether Durant accepts the praise or not, it doesn't appear Bayless will be slowing down any time soon or changing his tune.

And with the way that Durant is performing on the court currently, it's hard to envision a reason why Bayless would.

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