Imagine what Twitter and ESPN would look like if Giannis or Jokic shot 4-17 in a playoff game, I've never seen a star as protected as KD in the NBA before

I also think this series has shattered the narrative that "Durant is just gonna do his thing regardless of whatever defensive scheme the opposition plays"

Honestly, this opened my eyes a bit, cause I think about the criticism people like, Demar Derozan, Devin Booker, Zach Lavine, Carmelo Anthony, man even James Harden, these guys get so much shit from the media about their one dimensional games, but it feels like KD doesn't the same treatment. Nothing but respect for KD tho, he didn't ask for people to see him like a god

It's one of the funniest things to me as a basketball fan that KD was considered the best player on the planet ''no debate'' until last friday when you think about all that was talked about him these past years. KD going to the warriors was ''the weakest move ever by a superstar'', because he couldn't get past the Warriors, much less Lebron. People were saying at the time those rings didn't count because the team was too stacked. Give it a few years and the narrative completely changed to ''The Warriors needed KD and pleaded with him to come to the Bay''. The warriors now are doubted even thought their team is great because ''Now they don't have KD'' With KD out, Lebron won his fourth ring. ''Wait until KD comes back in Brooklyn''. Then KD came back, Bucks defeated the Nets, Giannis became Finals MVP, and right in the next season... ''KD is still the best player in the world and there isn't even a debate.'' KD never won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 lead. Steph won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 too. Guess who is the player who is ''undoubtely the best in the planet''? It's WILD to me that it looks to most people that they got into their subconscious that KD is the best player on the planet with so many people ahead of him in the race.

Kevin Durant is now facing the same defense that Curry has faced his entire career. That speaks to the difference in the levels of players that they are.

A great example is Lebron. Lebron can miss a game winner in December and people will act like he lost a game seven. Jokic in Denver is about to be swept while putting up great numbers and is STILL getting blamed. Durant tho? Nope.

Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless also deserve alot of the blame for the special treatment that KD receives. They both push false narratives that they know are not true because they want someone other than LeBron or Giannis to be recognized as the best player in the world.

There’s more to offense than scoring. i think Luka Lebron Steph Giannis Jokic are all better offensively than kd because they are better playmakers than KD

The celtics have their entire defensive gameplan built around locking up KD, and he's not punishing them with passing, and he's getting knocked off balance quite a bit because of his slender frame compared to the freight trains Boston is putting out there.

This man never faces criticism apart from his goldenstate move and that was deserved and expected

My biggest problem with KD is that people don't hold him to the same standard as Lebron James

I think there’s definitely an element of diminishing the achievements of the warriors by overstating how good Durant is to go with this narrative.

I can’t believe he didn’t get killed last year when he went 0-6 in that bucks overtime and they lost that series. Giannis still gets killed for the wall raptors built years ago when that was blown out of proportion.

I think the reason why he's so soft towards criticism and acts like everyone hates him whenever someone points out something that is negative about him even if it's something minimal, is because of what you said, the media barely talks bad about him compared to the other top players in the league.

I’ve always been confused when I’ve heard people use overall skill set to judge scoring ability over production and efficiency. As if Tmac is a better scorer than Shaq

Most people will call you insane if you say Giannis/Jokic/Embiid are on the same level as KD at scoring...but the numbers speak for themselves.

I was surprised to see not many people in the mainstream media blame him, more people blamed Kyrie and Nash even though KD wanted Nash, big reason why Harden wanted out

KD has been getting constantly slandered on Twitter or by general NBA fans. Not saying it’s not justified, it most certainly is but to say he’s barely getting any hate is simply not true

Kevin Durant is the biggest example of the aesthetic bias. He’s not that much better than Giannis, if anything Giannis scores just as efficiently with better defense. But KD is treated as beyond him

KD underperforming is a big issue for the Nets but in reality this is what happens when a team doesn't really have a structured offense. Nets are kind of just KD and Kyrie freelancing which is cool until a smart defensive team simply chooses to focus on the 2 stars and force the rest of the team to beat them. Funny enough the team KD left doesn't have this problem at all. Warriors have 4 selfless guys in a structured offense each capable of putting up 25+ on any given night. Makes KD look even worse for leaving honestly, he left to play a more selfish style of basketball while have less success.

I always have like KD’s game but its kind of clear cut that if you’re going to be the best player in the nba, you need to have that all around game or as close as you can possibly get to it. This is why from 2008-2018 in most peoples eyes LeBron simply held that title because he was the best player in the league at nearly every aspect of basketball that you can get to (2013 LeBron or 2014 LeBron to me were his best two years). I never really saw KD as the best player in the league always top five for sure but never the best because of a few main things to me. As a scorer, dont get me wrong, KD is and might very well be the best making something out of nothing bucket getter in nba history, but as for the rest of his game I dont think its really as good and whenever I have friends say hes the best player in basketball, I have a few things. KD historically isn’t a top tier playmaker. He’s nothing close to lebron or jokic level in terms of that or even steph either. In terms of his defense, a fully locked in Kawhi, Giannis, Lebron, Embiid, and Jokic this season all are better defenders than KD is. Now this is in part because in Brooklyn he really has to do more but even still if you want to be the best player in the league you need both sides of the basketball. Even picking a part his offense, KD has always been an elite scorer, but a player whose also been an elite scorer who people say cant be the best player is Steph Curry, why because he doesn’t play good enough defense to be so. With this logic then, KD shouldn’t be able to be the unanimous best player in basketball either. Also both Steph and KD imo have very similar levels of gravity when it comes to how defenses want to defend them, just curry is a better user of his gravity to be a playmaker and set up his teammates. And then when it comes to being that best player, every single one of these guys would get ripped apart if they shot 4-17. If Curry shot 4-17 it would be oh he cant carry a team, if jokic did that everyone would say oh where are you’re advanced stats now? If giannis did that it would become oh no jump shot no makes, if LeBron did that it would be LeChoke. But kd its more of oh ok he did bad but we put it to the side where as we would rip other superstars apart. It really feels like we put KD on this pedestal of what the best all around basketball player is like when really hes all time great in one thing but not everything else is up to par with how good his scoring is. I know that this is all highly opinionated and also when youre getting into the likes of who the true best player in the league is, it all can be decided by such a small negligible difference. In my opinion, if you say from Jokic, Giannis, Joel, KD, Steph, LeBron, that one of these guys are best in the league, its really coming down to splitting the difference and with some bias too. Like for me, last season Steph Curry was the best player in the league because his offense was otherworldly that season even if his defense is not that great. I’m not gong to be mad if you pick KD, but it’s simply not a unanimous race of who the best player in the league is especially now with how stacked each position is right now. there have been to me only very few instances where it was clearly one player was the best in the nba and those to me are: 2013 or 2014 LeBron, 2016 Steph in the regular season, MJ from 1991-1993, Shaq in 2000

5 points got Durant to this level of a pedestal (which I've been arguing against for about a year now). 1. People's misunderstanding of the value of his two Finals MVPs with the Warriors. 2. Always this idea that he was the natural successor to LeBron in the "best player in the world" discussion, only LeBron never fell off enough for it to actually happen and now there's an idea that Durant "deserves" it. 3. That the Warriors lost to Toronto in the 2019 Finals (despite finishing off Houston and wrecking Portland without KD). Had Golden State won, Durant would have certainly been saddled by the media about his decision to join Golden State and how they didn't need him at all (devaluing his two championship rings from a historical sense). But because Golden State lost, the narrative turned into Golden State and Curry couldn't do it without KD (which is illogical to put so much weight there, but that's how it played out), 4. he somewhat got bailed out with excuses in 2021 with the Irving/Harden injuries. 5. The "best player in the world" title became disputed. I've of the opinion that it was LeBron James from '12 through '18, Leonard in '19, James again in '20 and then Giannis in '21 (arguments for a different time). But as you mentioned, the make-up of the league is that the top player in the league is unclear for a multitude of reasons. That uncertainty paired with point #2 gave Durant a status he never quite earned. Injuries to LeBron, Leonard and Curry (who's usually been in my top 3 each year except 2020) made it easy to slide Durant into that spot (and forced Giannis to kick everyone's ass in 2021 to prove a point).

This is the difference between someone like KD and Lebron. He’s held to a lower standard and is often protected. Is he great? Yea, and one of the greatest talents to play the game and first ballot HOF player but he’s never been in that all time great stratosphere of players like MJ, Bron or Kareem

My problem is kd always had a luxury of having a another star/all-star level player with an soild bench help. And defenses normally just play him 1v1 but teams like grit grind grizz and now Celtics show different way of defeating him.

Westbrook gets all the blame for okc losing in 2016 while kd played like garbage

It's crazy how obvious Giannis became the best player in the league and were people thinking KD was the best player because of that series agaisnt the Bucks. If i remember well, even Giannis in a press conference gave him the props, but he was being modest. You didnt mention that full recovering from the injury and playing like he played in OKC made the people believe also he was the best player in the league again.

Just to rub it in the bulls in game three versus the bucks scored 66 points in 43 minutes while the woarriors in game two versus the nuggets scored 70 points in 19 minutes.

What gets me the most is the media narrative that a 73 win Warriors team "needed" KD to lead them to championships. They won a championship before him and are a contender again without him

Thank you for saying Jordan was a better scorer than KD. Cause he was. I'm tired of hearing KD is a better scorer than Jordan. Jordan scored more points on similar efficiency in an era with 0 spacing on a team that was defensive oriented and depended on him for the scoring. KD has played now on two teams with ridiculously good spacing and offensive heavy talent...and still averages less points per game on similar efficiency to Jordan.

I think one forgotten element was when Durant won the MVP in 2014, every media personality used it as a means to attack Lebron at a time when Lebron and the Heat were clearly falling apart. It was a way almost to congratulate themselves for caring about "the right things"; complimenting Durant on his humility, his willingness to play for small market OKC without complaint, how he credited his mother with his accomplishments, etc. etc. etc, in absolute contrast to the egotistical, self-promoting Lebron of "The Decision" who was crashing and burning. It also was a means of absolving a great many of them for how they handled Lebron and his tenure in Miami when it became quite apparent it wasn't the celebratory story they were originally portraying it as. And I think that never went away. Durant's got that unique quality that if you like his game and find it superior to all others, you're a fan of "pure basketball" and "pure fandom" untainted by hype and pretense.

Kd been slandered heavily especially on twitter wym

Steph > KD all time. Been saying it for years now.

I never cared much for KD, but then again there was a time from 2014 to 2018 I didn’t have a favorite player. I respect KD’s game in OKC, however, I didn’t like his move to the GSW. I’ve been a huge fan of Giannis since he started his climb to the top. He’s stuck with his team and has taken them all the way, and I honestly can’t say KD has ever done that. He went to a championship caliber team to all but solidify his chances at a ring and he got it. The Warriors won without him and continue to do so post 2018 and I’m damn sure of it. I’d rather watch the Bucks lose to Golden State than watch them lose to the Nets. Even then as an Eastern Conference guy I’d rather see Curry get 4 than KD get 3.

Watching this video after the warriors tied the series 2-2. Steph Curry gets absolutely slandered day in day out for not “showing up” in the 4th quarter despite putting the Warriors on his back the entire finals.

Durant listening in on this video right now getting ready for an insane performance tonight :D

This video aged so well. god damn. sheeeshh!!!

Let’s be honest Kd is going to get his criticism after the 🧹

I think it's definitely most to do with the perception of what skill is to that type of fan. Shooting and the ability to create the shot for yourself you want is held in the highest regard of "skill" for some. It's very similar to how Kobe fans treat him. Neither Kobe nor Durant have a glaring or noticeable weakness skill wise or athletically like how LeBron and Giannis its shooting /free throws, or Jokic and Luka its noticeable that they are slower and makes them look worse on defense etc.. Durant and Kobe have had just as many if not more sub par games in the playoffs than other best in the world contenders , but they make missing look pretty. So it just looks like to fans of theirs "the shot just didn't fall today" .

down 3-0 now

I still believe that KD's rise to the top in media/fans minds is entirely predicated on being a thorn/opposition to Lebron. He'd be viewed the same as PG on that superstar potential level. But bc he was on the team that stopped Lebron from winning his 4th/5th ring people act like he's the best in the world. Even at his best he was never higher than 2nd or 3rd for even 1 series.

Steph, LeBron, Jokic, and Harden are the only players that receive top tier scrutiny and criticism when they fail

I honestly believe that KD’s decision made his 2016 3-1 blunder more scrutinized, not less. I remember people ripping into him for leaving after they blew that lead and him going like 12/30 in games 5 and 6 was all over ESPN

Keep the opinions up and on point like this. You’re objectivity (hope I used that right) is much needed

I smashed that like button cause it only took one second and made a massive difference and really helps the algorithm out

I agree I don’t know why this the case, well until you explained this

this was the same guy who said timberwolves in 7 over the grizzlies 🤣

Enjoying the content, been here since before 50k

I used to hate on players due to the media but now I think it’s weird and corny

Keep up the good shit rusty

Minimal? LMaoooo, people are slandering him so badly that they're saying LeBron beat this team, even though that's dumb and it isnt the same, but he is absolutely being slandered, and it is not minimal

Great vid watched whole thing

I just started watching the peer to peer podcast and watched the episode with Rusty Buckets. Your different Rusty😭😭

Ok but russelll Westbrook averaged a triple double thoooo 🤯🤯🤯

I hope he never wins another championship, when he was with golden state, I felt like he thought the warriors needed him more then he needed curry, green, klay. Now he can see how hard it is, Go Dubs

Yo Rusty, wanted to say that I appreciate your insight and the time you put into these topics. As a Blazers fan (yes, I know), I have disagreed plenty with you in the past, but your dedication to making your videos better and better and to researching these topics is awesome to see. I am sure that you have your fair share of haters being so outspoken, but I wanted to say that I appreciate you, and the way you go about it. Love your videos dawg (hopefully this doesn't sound backhanded, not meant to be whatsoever).

It’s cuz Kevin Durant has his mom Wanda going after the people who would criticize him the most. Another reason is cuz the other people who would criticize him want him so badly to succeed over Lebron or Giannis. That’s why he gets literally zero criticism from NBA media.

I knew you were gonna bring up Stephen A lol His entire reasoning behind KD being the best player is simply that he’s 7 feet tall and can pull up from 40 😆

Who's here after Nets down 0-3?

Lol great timing on the video and straight facts you spitting there

Durant is facing a fraction of physicality that players felt in the 80s and 90s and is thrown off his game.

The Warriors overhyped him, any superstar at that point any player with that caliber would a won with the Warriors. It's obvious and dude can't pull him through the series against the celtics, I'm not even a big lebron fan but if this was lebron or gainis they would have killed him

People underestimated his lack of speed since the injury because he’s so skilled but just like every great player he has spots and the Celtics are long fast and strong enough to take his spots

These are the real takes I subscribed for 💯

Appreciate you bro

Rusty i usually agree with your takes but i’ve always felt you’ve been wrong about KD, everyone outside of Stephen A criticizes him a good amount the thing with him compared to the rest of the league is he hasn’t had much opportunity to criticize him over the last 5 years, He did what he had to in golden state and would’ve won a 3rd ring cuz he was going crazy til he got injured in 2019, he missed the whole entire bubble szn so what is anyone gon say about him, than last year he dealt with injuries all reg szn and still put up historically efficient numbers, then against the bucks we were watching him almost pull off what shouldn’t have been possible which is solo handedly beating the bucks and as much as people don’t wanna hear it he really was an inch away from accomplishing that, the over time was bad but dam he couldn’t really get in shape the whole year so fatigue really was a factor and he still got slandered like crazy but somehow the narrative that he gets a pass for every underperformance which isn’t true at all, than this year he played amazing when he actually played until these playoffs where he is getting slandered more than any other player but people spend more time on wanting to see him get slandered than actually acknowledging that he has been getting slandered, also to say that he is a B- playmaker and defender is crazy especially since he got to GSW, When compared to everyone in the league he has the least weaknesses while being the best scorer so it’s not hard to understand why people think he’s the best in the league,

I thought I was the only one with this opinion. But ppl act like I'm saying he's trash or something

This might be the best video I’ve ever seen Rusty do, respect

5:47 I've seen that loads of times based on the premise that he's "the only superstar that does it on both ends."

Jokic does not get the same level of criticism as KD this is ridiculous. All the sports shows been cooking KD and they barely talk about the gsw series. All the talk has been about Jordan Poole and how good gsw been. Jokic about to win mvp and be swept. KD was called the softest player by skip Bayless. Nick wright cooks KD every year.

I despite how KD has been shooting... we can all admit the refs let them manhandled each other through the first game and a half only to switch it up midway through the last game right? As a basketball player, that throws your rhythm off and watching his career. He's clearly a rhythm player

Bro it's like I been saying this exact thing for YEARS thank you for this video bro

I'm glad Buckets laid this out so objectively. Well done video

While I disagree with some of what you said here, I completely agree that KD does not get the same scrutiny others do. I mean everyone uses Russ as a scapegoat in OKC when KD was terrible at the end of that series too, very similar to right now actually.

I swear, if I hear one more “he’s 7 feet tall and shoots like a guard” that people say to justify their opinion that KD beats the 96 bulls in a 1 on 5 No disrespect to KD ofc, one of the best to ever play the game, but my god his fanboys always jump to that to argue why KD is literally perfect and invincible

THANK YOU!!! So many ppl cite KD as the best or the best scorer and I don’t get it. People say “he’s a 7 footer that can do everything” I hate talking about what people CAN do vs the production itself

This series has showns us if players play good defense anyone can be stopped

KD is slandered all the time, what are you talking about ? the media cares about lebron only, with 98% percent bronsexuals and 2% haters. the rest of the league barely gets any mention, and if KD is mentioned, they usually shit on him for the warriors move or the twitter beefs or the fact that he left the warriors.

Bro the other players can have a great game and still get shit for it💀”oh but…” yet KD is having a horrendous series so far: gets no shit for it😂

The funny thing is even in OKC Kevin Durant wasn't very highly criticized. He was pretty young there for a lot of that but that young core was expected to get a championship. Imagine what the narrative about Giannis would be if he didn't get one or what it will be around Devin Booker if he doesn't get one.

Yeah. Only TSO Sage on his head. While everyone else is on Jokic's head

Kevin Durant fans have been more annoying than LeBron fans the past couple of years imo

You know know what's funny this man came off a career ending injury a year ago and a serious one this season. His team was number one before he went down they barely have any chemistry together but still made the playoffs and the refs are allowing the Celtics to do what they want. Yet y'all still find a way to criticize them.

It’s always salty Lebron fans that complain about KD not getting enough criticism

As a nets fan I never expected to overcome the Celtics this year, but game three really showed all the problems our team had this year. Literally there were two possessions where KD and Kyrie miscommunicated leading to a turnover which just shows how little time the two had playing together.

I have Kobe over kd as scorers. (Pls read this Jacob I wonder if you agree :) KD has the efficiency shooting and all that but we never talk about the help he had to be efficient. Aside from his mvp season and Rookie year, we have never see kd without an elite playmaker, (russ,harden, Kyrie, green and curry). Let alone other scoring threat that turned out they don’t have elite playmakers like klay. Kobe for his career only had one elite playmaker, that was nash and he didn’t play for the whole season. The other ones who are close are Pau and shaq, no where close to the talent KD had. Yet Kobe has scoring games, weeks, months and even season that some would even say is the greatest of all time. But no he’s not in the convo cause “He nEvEr sHOt 50%”

He’s soft and everyone coddles him since everyone knows how fragile he is so they don’t make a big fuss about it or a burner account would pop up.

I like rusty’s voice. He’s on a shortlist of youtubers I can listen in the background

love this video

Are you kidding me why wouldn't anyone be talkin about Kevin Durant my favourite player is Kyrie Irving and honestly I blame him more because the team Dynamic and chemistry is completely way off honestly it's a little bit ridiculous the fact that we just expected them to just pick up everything and be ready for the finals they are not ready for the finals and I believe that they need a couple pieces that's what I believe

Kyrie being great in the first game takes ppl attention away from how GOD AWFUL he was

You was cooking on this video

I love that someone said this because this is so true especially from SAS.

Underrated Superstars: Lebron(at this point) Giannis Kawhi Luka Overrated superstars: KD Embiid Curry Jokic is weird because people either severely underrate him(Nick wright) or severely overrate him

YOU don’t think he’s been slandered enough…he’s been getting HELLA hate lately

Thank you for the gift papa rust

bro that doesn't even make sense lmao. KD isn't the best because the people that think he is the best think it isn't debatable? Clearly they see something you don't. And also do you not remember how much slander he got in OKC after losing just one series? "Mr unreliable" "Choked a 3-1 lead" "Needs a superteam to win". And also Stephen A currently does not think KD is the best in the world. Yeah KD doesn't get held to high standards yeah clearly 100 percent lmao

I'm not giving him a pass but he's also playing with a team that he has barely any reps with all season. Combine that with the Celtics focusing their entire game plan on shutting him down and you can see why it would end in Durant having one of his worst series ever.

The only reasons i can think of for not scrutinizing KD is because he was in Golden State so he didnt need to do everything or even show out every single night and then after that he had an injury that ends 9 out of 10 careers so him still being top 5 just seems miraculous

Thank you, Rusty 🤝

For a comparison take lebrons 2018 game 1 overtime lost vs the warriors and compare it to kds 2021 game 7 overtime lost to the bucks, in both games lebron and kd played about as perfect a game as they could've possibly played and we can argue if not for one mistake ( lebron and the Jr clock management mistake ) or ( kds game tieing shot not game winning because his foot was on the line ) they win those games, yet they ended up losing those games and the series yet for lebron that lost till this day is held against him while no one brings up kds lost from last year, and to make matters worse lebrons performance came with a much worse team then kds ( and thats true the 2018 cavs are not as good as the 2021 nets the only reason the 2018 cavs made the finals was because of lebron but the 2021 nets made the playoffs and were a top 4 seed despite kd, Kyrie and harden barley playing together) also it doesn't help that now almost all of kds short comings in okc have basically been passed over to Westbrook absolving him from blame despite blowing a 3-1 to the warriors the same team lebron came back from down 3-1 to beat