Kevin Durant still thinks MJ would be best player in the NBA

A recent comment from former Longhorn Kevin Durant shows that he would think Michael Jordan would still be at the top if he played in the modern NBA.

At least in terms of NBA success, the player that had the best career so far from the Texas basketball program is the Brooklyn Nets superstar forward and two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant. When healthy, you could very easily argue that KD is one of the two or three best players in the NBA at the moment.

Where KD ranks on the NBA’s all-time greats list much be a more hotly contested debate. He’s still in the midst of the prime years of his career, despite getting drafted second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 2007 NBA Draft out of the Texas Longhorns basketball program, which took place more than one decade ago.

KD spent most of his NBA career to date with the SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder. But most of his accolades (especially those coming in the postseason) came during a stint with the Golden State Warriors. The Nets are now the third NBA team he’s played for, but he sat out the 2019-20 regular season that is currently placed on pause due to the novel coronavirus pandemic due to a lower-body injury he suffered during the 2019 playoff run with the Warriors.

In the midst of that COVID-19 induced NBA season hiatus, KD opened up on his thoughts about the Chicago Bulls all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan after the premier of the highly anticipated ESPN/ABC documentary series on April 19, called “The Last Dance”. KD clearly had high marks for Jordan and how he would fit into the modern game.

If Jordan were to be playing in the modern NBA “he would fit in as the best player in the league”, KD said. “That’s would he would be”, KD added to his statement made over the weekend as The Last Dance premiered on Sunday night.

MJ and Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James are usually the two players that are argued as to who the best player in NBA history is. You would presume that KD has chosen which side of the aisle he’s on.

During his college playing days, MJ was a part of the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program under former legendary head coach Dean Smith. UNC was a program that also offered KD out of high school, before he committed to playing for the Longhorns and former head coach Rick Barnes.