NBA Players: 3 Reasons why Kevin Durant will never be as highly regarded as LeBron James

#1 Individual accolades

Golden State Warriors v Los Angeles Lakers

In terms of individual accolades, LeBron James is untouchable. In the regular season he is a four-time MVP and is the only player in NBA history to record at least 31,000 points, 8,000 rebounds, and 8,000 assists. Durant won the MVP only once in 2014 and trails behind James in all the statistical categories.

King James is even better when it comes to defense, he has been selected to the NBA All-Defensive first team a whopping five times in a row (2009 to 2013) and was close to winning the Defensive Player of the Year two times.

Durant is a good defender and has improved a lot over the years but he never featured in the All NBA Defensive teams even once in his career.

Both the players are incredibly talented and are often compared but LeBron has a huge lead in terms of personal achievements over his counterpart. Durant has a lot of time to catch up with James but it won't be easy for him.

Off the court, LeBron is a celebrity and a well known figure, and is also known as the face of the NBA. KD is also popular but does not possess the same star power as King James.

James will lead the Lakers with new additions Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, while Durant is recovering from his Achilles tendon injury and in all likelihood will be only back by the 2020-21 NBA season to play for the Nets.