Kevin Durant might step on the gasoline after listening to this.
Charles Barkley, the NBA Corridor of Famer turned fashionable basketball analyst, mentioned Durant must be the “bus driver” of his crew to achieve respect among the many “outdated heads.”
“Till he’s the man on a championship, we’re not going to ever give him the respect that he most likely deserves,” Barkley mentioned on ESPN’s “Get Up!” on Friday. “The sport hasn’t modified. Kobe mentioned it, LeBron mentioned it, we’re going to carry him to the identical excessive customary.”
The remark got here simply days after the Warriors captured their first title since Durant left Golden State to signal with the Nets in 2019.
Durant has been referred to as out about his legacy loads of occasions earlier than, however Golden State, which was one of many league’s worst groups after the previous league MVP left three seasons in the past, rebounded absolutely with out him.
The Warriors, who had received a championship in 2015, signed Durant in July 2016, and he received back-to-back titles with Golden State in 2017 and 2018.
“[Durant] joined that crew that already received a championship, no disrespect, that’s only a truth,” Barkley mentioned.


Durant, who received the league’s MVP award in 2014 with the Thunder received two Finals MVP awards with the Warriors, although he was taking part in alongside one other celebrity, Stephen Curry. For the Warriors’ title win over the Celtics this season, Curry received his first MVP award.
Whereas the Warriors at the moment are again on prime, the Nets haven’t been in a position to get previous the Jap Convention semifinals since Durant’s arrival.
The Nets have been eradicated within the first spherical throughout this 12 months’s playoffs by the Celtics, although Brooklyn had a roster that included Durant and Kyrie Irving and a large variety of former stars resembling Blake Griffin.