For years Phoenix Suns superstar and NBA legend Kevin Durant has had his leadership or lack thereof questioned. One of his most vocal critics is Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s highest-paid talking head.
It all started during his time in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder were talented enough to win an NBA championship be just never seemed to put all the pieces together with him as their franchise player.
His next move was to go to Golden State, joining a 73-win team that had just eliminated the Thunder in seven games.
Next was his underachieving time in Brooklyn, where they never advanced beyond the conference semifinals despite having Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
Now in Phoenix with the likes of Devin Booker and Bradley Beal forming another big three, the question is, will Durant lead the Suns to their first NBA title and second NBA Finals appearance in five seasons?
Durant’s talent as an all-time great is unquestioned, but as far as his leadership or leadership style, that’s come under some serious scrutiny over the years, and mainly from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who doesn’t have the greatest relationship with KD.
Durant Respond To SAS’s Claim
Following the Suns’ season-opening 116-113 overtime road win over the Kawhi Leonard-less Los Angeles Clippers to open the team’s brand-spanking-new home arena, Smith immediately came for Durant. In a social media post, the always-outspoken Smith pretty much dismissed the Suns as title contenders because of what he called Durant’s lack of leadership.
“When you are that great — you should be able to be a better leader than he has shown,” Smith said.
Stephen A Smith vs Kevin Durant
Durant didn’t respond right away, but in a recent interview with The Athletic the two-time NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP unloaded on Smith’s critical take aimed at him:
“Yeah, Stephen A., I don’t understand how people even listen to Stephen A. I’ve been in the league 18 years and I’ve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, film session, or shoot-around. I’ve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking (expletive) about players. He’s a clown to me. He’s always been a clown. You can write that, too.”
Safe to say KD isn’t looking to mend any fences with Smith anytime soon. In fact, this has been brewing and brewing quite some time, and really picked up steam when Smith called KD’s move to Golden State, “the weakest move he’s ever seen from a superstar.”
From that point in July 2016 these two haven’t had many nice things to say about each other.
Smith Quotes Ice Cube In Response
“No Vaseline @KDTrey5 … Damn I’m glad y’all went and set it off. See y’all tomorrow.”
Expect fireworks on ESPN’s “First Take.”
While SAS doesn’t consider the Suns a title threat, a nucleus of KD and the aforementioned Booker and Beal definitely has to be taken as a contender just because of the strength of those three. And while it remains to be seen if they’ve done enough with the role players around them, we know KD is gonna be KD.
The 18-year veteran is averaging 26 points, seven rebounds and three assists on shooting splits of 55/41/80 this season in leading the Suns to a 5-1 record and tied for the second-best record in the West with his former team Golden State.
