Any basketball fan who has watched Charles Barkley share his two cents on the current state of the game knows that he doesn’t mince words.
Last month, the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant’s former team, defeated the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals and Barkley discussed Golden State’s victory during a segment on ESPN’s Get Up, during which talk turned to Durant. While discussing the two-time NBA champion, Barkley asserted that Durant won’t get the same level of respect that other great players have earned until he becomes the “bus driver” of a championship team.
“Kobe Bryant said, ‘I had to win a championship without Shaq.’ LeBron James said, ‘I had to win a championship without [Dwayne] Wade and Chris Bosh. That’s the way this thing works. Before KD gets that great respect from all the old heads, he’s going to have to win a championship as the bus driver.
Listen, he joined that team that already won a championship, no disrespect, that’s just a fact. … KD’s an all-time hell of a player, but until he is the guy on a championship, we’re not going to ever give him the respect that he probably deserves. The game hasn’t changed. Kobe said it, LeBron said it, and so we’re going to hold him to the same high standard.”
Durant recently addressed Barkley’s “bus driver” comment and hit back on everything he said about him.
“Bus riders, bus drivers, like what does that even mean? That’s a bunch of s— you just make up,” Durant said. “Like I ain’t did s— before I went to Golden State. I had shoes, I had MVPs before I met these guys. Y’all just be hating on the god. Then you say I won’t get respect from the legends, like who? Cause every time I run into a legend I get nothing but love. Go do your research fam, I been this.”
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Durant was the face of the Oklahoma City Thunder when he led them to an NBA Finals appearance and was even named the MVP of the league. However, after losing a 3-1 lead against the Warriors in the playoffs, Durant would join that very team the following month in free agency.
The thought was that Durant would shed that reputation on the Brooklyn Nets, but that hasn’t been the case so far.
