While they are getting up there in age, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant continue to prove year in and year out that they are still two of the best players in the league.
This summer, that entailed leading USA Basketball to a gold medal during the 2024 Olympics. Team USA’s three oldest players – James, Durant and Stephen Curry – were their best and most important during the gold medal run.
Durant came off the bench most of the tournament while James led the starting unit, but both came up with huge buckets for their team when it mattered most in the medal rounds.
After the tournament, James showed love to Durant as one of the greatest players ever, and that feeling is clearly mutual. When asked to come up with his starting five for the new NBA 2K video game, Durant included himself, James, Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson and Joel Embiid:
y'all can debate @NBA2K pic.twitter.com/ILHDwwG3H0
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) September 13, 2024
It is worth noting that this is a starting five based on the NBA 2K25 video game and not necessarily real life. So while the defense may not be great, in the game, this would be one awfully tough lineup to stop offensively.
They have two elite playmakers that can also score with James and Doncic, and they are flanked by two exceptional spot-up shooters in Durant and Thompson. It’s interesting that he went with Embiid at center over a more defensive-oriented big like Anthony Davis or Bam Adebayo, but there’s no denying the Philadelphia 76ers star would add another offensive punch to this group.
James, Doncic, Embiid and Durant were given four of the top-10 highest ratings in the game for NBA 2K25, so Durant is definitely not wrong to put them together in his group alongside Thompson. With four of them being Western Conference players, it is possible that they team up in real life in the All-Star Game this February.
Jeanie Buss: LeBron James might be greatest player of all time
One person who continues to be impressed with what LeBron James is doing at his age is Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. In fact, after watching what James did in this summer’s Olympics, Buss thinks he may be the greatest player of all time.
And that’s saying something considering Jeanie grew up with the Showtime Lakers and Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Magic Johnson and also was there for Michael Jordan’s prime, Kobe Bryant’s, etc.
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