Why Kevin Durant Should Be the Face of the NBA

Why? Because Durant is as close to the perfect superstar as the Association currently has.

Cue the backlash.

Don’t be too hasty in ripping apart this assessment; I’m well aware James is a more freakishly athletic and well-rounded talent than Durant himself.

But it goes beyond talent, it goes beyond stat lines and most importantly, it goes beyond accolades. The face of the NBA needs to have an embraceable fierceness about him, both on and off the court. James arguably has that, he’s arguably a good teammate and an overall standup guy. But Durant is better.

And a perfect example of why has only recently fallen onto our laps, courtesy of ESPN’s poster-child for controversy, Skip Bayless.

When Brian Windhorst, of ESPN himself, broke the news that Durant and James were training together, Bayless took to Twitter to voice his worthless, albeit heard, opinion.

Wake up, KD: LeBron is keeping his friends close and his enemy closer. You’re letting him OWN you.

Now, let’s move past the fact that Durant and LeBron working out together is hardly news. Is it noteworthy? Of course—just think about what these two could learn from each other—but at the same time, they’ve done this before. So, why does Bayless feel the need to provide Durant with some useless advice?

If anything, two of the game’s greats working out together is a good thing. I mean, after all, it does kind of preach the lost art of sportsmanship, right?

Luckily for us, though, we don’t have to spend a thousand words trampling on the already-discredible-name of Bayless, because Durant did it for us, taking to Twitter himself to give Bayless a piece of his—and probably the rest of the world’s—mind.

@RealSkipBayless u brainwashing these people out here, they think since you on espn you know what u talkin bout…please, nobody owns me.

Though Durant deleted the Tweet shortly after, there was no taking back what he said. And why would he want to?

Durant did not only defend himself here, but James as well, and simply clicking the delete button isn’t going to change that. And it’s this fierce loyalty to the purity of the game that the NBA needs to capitalize off of.

No one’s saying James isn’t loyal—unless they live in Cleveland—and no one’s saying he doesn’t have pure intentions, but he couldn’t get away with what Durant did. The media would have hit James hard, regardless of who his comments would have been directed at, including the almost universally hate Bayless.

And that’s James’ own fault. He put a target on his back the moment he spurned the Cavaliers for the Heat. But that’s not why were here, because in all actuality, James is a winner, and a more than deserving face of the league.

That said, Durant is more fit for this duty. He protects himself, stays true to his ideals and has the kind of personality that has yet to be corrupted. We’ve seen him stick up for Russell Westbrook, but this was different. Westbrook may miss him open in transition, but he’s his teammate. Defending and befriending one of the guys who pulled an NBA championship out of your grasp, though? That’s something else—in a good way.

And again, it’s not just about talent, though Durant has plenty of it. He’s a great scorer and rebounder, and an underrated defender as well. But in that regard, he’s no James, who is a dominant specimen of all things basketball—except when it comes to matters of this magnitude; Durant is exactly who ESPN portrays him to be up in the rafters—an athlete with both the drive to succeed, and a conscience.

Simply put, Durant is both the epitome of loyal and the embodiment of fierce. And he, more than anyone else in the league, including LeBron, is both better equipped and more deserving of being considered the face of the NBA.

In fact, after all he’s done for the game over the past year, I think it’s safe to say he already is.