Kevin Durant: 'I'm still the best player in the world'

Kevin Durant may have only played 27 games last season, but the four-time scoring champ and former MVP still believes he’s the best basketball player in the world.

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder has always been incredibly confident about his remarkable abilities as a basketball player. Since he started taking more of an curt approach with the media, that fact has been made even more clear. Now, he’s enjoying his offseason by promoting the Nike KD VIII shoes and, in the process, letting everyone know that he believes he’s still the best basketball player in the world.

It hardly seems like a statement that needs saying, as after winning the MVP award in the 2013-14 season, earning his fourth scoring title and posting at least 25 points in 41 straight games during the year (which, for the record, beats Michael Jordan’s number of 40 games and is third-most all-time), we know that Kevin Durant believes he’s better than LeBron James.

Although, now with that freakishly athletic and versatile power forward Anthony Davis stepping into the picture, Durant’s guaranteed position as a top-two player is something he’ll need to prove again when he’s fully healthy next season.

When a player ends an interview with the line “yes, I’m still the best player in the world” without even cracking a smile, it’s safe to say they’re taking themselves seriously.

Kevin Durant isn’t just one of the best players in the NBA today; he’ll retire as one of the most prolific scorers in league history. That’s all there is to it. When you look at his MVP season, there’s really no way you can deny it.

From his 39.1 percent three point stroke and 50.3 field goal percentage, to his 32 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, Durant made everyone question their almost automatic opinion of ranking LeBron as the best basketball player on the planet. KD did things all over the court with a sense of simultaneous finesse and aggression that seemed to leave your jaw dropping over every game he played.

That’s why it’s such a shame for the sport that he wasn’t healthy last season.

Will we see Kevin Durant back at full strength in 2015-16? That’s virtually guaranteed. As he said in the interview above, “we [the Thunder] are under the radar right now, which is exactly where we want to be”. He knows that his team are going to be scrutinized after not making the playoffs, but now that he’s “100 percent healthy” and Russell Westbrook is at full health for the start of the year, Durant is more than up to the challenge of silencing any critics.

It won’t be that easy, though. After LeBron’s Herculean effort in the Finals after losing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to injury, Stephen Curry’s MVP season and championship ring, and Anthony Davis’ meteoric rise to stardom, Durant has some fierce competition.

That being said, if he can take his Thunder back to the top of the Western Conference and continue to amaze us as he did in his MVP campaign (let’s face it, he will), there’s no reason why Kevin Durant can’t begin his duel for the NBA thrown with LeBron again.

We’ll just have to wait and see what Davis has in store to try and silence Durant’s statement.

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Kevin Durant: ‘I’m still the best player in the world’

By Tom West | Sep 8, 2015

Kevin Durant may have only played 27 games last season, but the four-time scoring champ and former MVP still believes he’s the best basketball player in the world.

More from Kevin Durant