Role model Kobe Bryant's compliments once left Kevin Durant dazed - "I felt like I was doing something right"

Kevin Durant received one of the greatest compliments from his idol Kobe Bryant after the latter retired. Bryant was one of the premier defensive stoppers and his record of nine first-team All-Defensive team selections is a testament to that.

Known for his offensive talent, Bryant came out on top against several top defensively against several of his opponents.

However, he once claimed that Durant was one player he couldn't figure out before hanging his boots. KD recently responded to a tweet that asked him how he felt about Kobe's comments on that, saying:

"I felt like I was doing something right."

Kobe Bryant was calculative, clinical and measured defensively. That helped him figure out a lot of elite offensive players and limit them from making an impact. However, Bryant couldn't adapt to Kevin Durant's shot-making once he added to his bag. Here's what Kobe said about this on "The Corp" podcast in 2018:

"Kevin Durant, that is the one I retired without having been able to figure out how to stop. When he first came into the league, he couldn’t go right and shoot. Also in the post, he couldn’t turn left shoulder, everything was right shoulder.

"That gave me areas I could shut off. Then he started developing it. Now he can pull up left, he can pull up right, he can shoot the long ball. He has runners, left hand, right hand, I couldn’t really figure out that rhythm yet. So, I retired without having figured out how to stop him."

Standing seven feet tall, possessing guard-like skills and the ability to shoot from long range, Durant was already difficult to stop when he came into the league. He became even more unguardable once he added more skills as a scorer, as Bryant mentioned.

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Kevin Durant turned into one of the greatest scorers of all time

There are very few players in the NBA who are unguardable. That list includes legendary names like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and more.

Durant is arguably the most unique because of his three-level scoring for someone with his size and length. He's among the nine players to shoot at a 50/40/90 clip. He is 13th on the all-time scoring list and could break into the top 10 as early as next season.

He's also influenced the game for more seven-footers that have come after him, who possess guard-like skills and can shoot on all-three levels in various ways. That includes the likes of Kristaps Porzingis, Chet Holmgren and the league's latest sensation, Victor Wembanyama, who stands at 7'4" tall.