"You gotta do what Steph did" - Draymond Green throws down gauntlet at Kevin Durant to get GOAT credentials

Kevin Durant helped Draymond Green and Steph Curry to back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. The Golden State Warriors may have gone 3-for-3 when it comes to titles during Durant’s stay with the Dubs. Only injuries to the “Slim Reaper” and Klay Thompson in the 2019 NBA Finals derailed what might have been a three-peat.

Durant won two NBA Finals MVPs in each of the seasons he lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy with the Warriors. Despite his impressive accomplishments, most fans are not giving him credit for that. Many are convinced that he would not have reached those heights had he not joined an already stacked team that went 73-9 before his arrival.

Recently, Steph Curry’s name has been added to the greatest of all time [GOAT] conversations. Durant, however, is conspicuously absent from those debates which prompted Draymond Green to comment.

“I think KD [Durant] is one of the greatest scorers we’ve ever seen. The way KD scored the ball is so effortless. … I’m not one that’s gonna be like, ‘KD’s championships aren’t real.’ ... There’s no championship that’s not real.”

“Steph [Curry] didn’t get the credit that Steph gets today until 2022 when he led this team [Warriors] to a championship and won a Finals MVP. When all else was failing, Steph said, ‘Alright, fellas, come on, let’s go there.’ Period. You gotta do what Steph did to get to that conversation.”

Essentially, Draymond Green is echoing what NBA legend Charles Barkley had been accusing Durant of. “Chuck” has repeatedly said over the last couple of years that Durant was a “bus rider” during his years with the Warriors.

Barkley has been saying that Durant has to win a championship on a team where he is the franchise cornerstone. Unless he accomplishes that, Barkley and Draymond Green, are not putting “KD” on the same tier as Michael Jordan or LeBron James.

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Draymond Green once said that Steph Curry was double-teamed 7x more than Kevin Durant in the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals

Draymond Green always thought Steph Curry had more to do with the 2017 and 2018 NBA championships than Kevin Durant did. Although it was KD who was named MVP on both occasions, Green argued why that happened:

“Kevin Durant was absolutely incredible in those finals runs. Kevin Durant was absolutely insane. Steph Curry got double-teamed, probably seven times the amount that KD did in any series.”

Green added that Curry could have won Finals MVP if the point guard wanted to take matters into his own hands. Instead of doing that, the NBA’s deadliest shooter, however, decided to look for the biggest mismatch in almost every Warriors possession.

“He’s [Curry] like, ‘Oh, we got a mismatch with Kevin Durant. We’re gonna get Kevin Durant the ball every single time. … If Steph Curry comes down and he calls for a pick-and-roll every play, nobody’s going to say a word, including Kevin Durant.”

Durant responded, calling Draymond Green’s words “100% false.” The current Phoenix Suns superstar is seemingly in a never-ending battle to prove that he did not take the easy route to two championships. “KD” must hate the perception that he rode Curry’s coattails to back-to-back titles.

In Draymond Green’s eyes, Durant’s inclusion in the GOAT conversation will only happen if he can lead his own team to a championship. For the longtime Warrior, "KD" was the Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018 but Steph Curry had the bigger impact.