Many people still regard LA Lakers’ superstar LeBron James as the best player in NBA, but former Chicago Bulls’ great Toni Kukoc believes that isn’t the case anymore. According to Kukoc, Kevin Durant should hold that title.
Kukoc, who won three NBA titles with Bulls and was NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1996, recently took part in Reddit’s AMA segment in which he answered questions from basketball fans all over the world. One of Reddit users decided to ask the 51-year-old Croatian about his favorite playmaker of the “current era.”
“Basketball doesn’t require a playmaker anymore, somebody that you always look for that has to bring the ball up the floor,” Kukoc responded. “In this era, there’s so many players with multiple skills, that it’s almost a waste of time to look for the playmaker when someone can push the ball and get into the offense.”
Kukoc then went on to call Durant “the best player in the NBA.”
“Plenty of times LeBron is mistaken as a point guard, which is awesome,” he added. “Kevin Durant, to me in my personal opinion, is the best player in the NBA. He can easily bring the ball up the floor. That’s a style that the triangle offense allowed that any one of us could run the point or be a post person or fill the corners. It’s not requirement to have a point guard, you can have skill players with 3 or 4 guys on the same team playing multiple positions.”
Toni Kukoc isn’t the only one who thinks Kevin Durant was the best player in the NBA in recent years. Many believed that Durant took that title from James when he led the Golden State Warriors to two consecutive NBA championships over James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, winning two NBA Finals MVP awards in the process.
However, Durant hasn’t played basketball almost a year due to nasty Achilles injury, so his case might not be as strong as it was before. It remains to be seen whether he’ll make another run for the throne once he recovers.
