Stephen A. DEFENDS HIS TAKE on Kevin Durant 🗣️ ‘HE IS ABSOLUTELY A TOP-10 PLAYER’ | First Take

Stephen A. DEFENDS HIS TAKE on Kevin Durant 🗣️ ‘HE IS ABSOLUTELY A TOP-10 PLAYER’ | First Take

as Kevin Durant joined the Rockets in a Sunday blockbuster that sent breakout star Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks in the number 10 overall pick to Phoenix durant an undoubted future Hall of Famer averaged 26.6 points per game last season but struggled to get the Suns going finishing 11th in the West ultimately missing the playoffs now earlier this morning Chris Kanty took issue with you mentioning KD as a top 10 player stephen A somebody need to drug test Stephen A smith with that take stay off the weed Stephen A stay off of it you’ve been hanging around Mad Dog too long dog maybe he might have slipped you one of those gummies whatever it is stay off stay off of it dog kevin Durant as a top 10 player you’re out of your mind i’m going to use a word that you like asinine it’s asinine to say that KD is a top 10 player all time well what would you like to say for yourself
well first of all I think that Chris Kanty does an outstanding job
and their new studio on radio their new studio i haven’t seen the studio i saw his big ass see he’s blocking most of it you know what I’m saying that’s a massive dude right there he knows I love him he knows I love him he does an outstanding job and he does an outstanding job because he irritates people six o’clock in the morning it’s unbelievable i got to give him credit where credit is due but having said all of that I will say simply this you want to sit up there and you want to bring up some of the all-time greats the Kareems the Russells the Will Chamberlain and others you want to talk about Magis you want to talk about of course I got Jordan the greatest of all time i got LeBron number two all time i got Kareem Abdul Jabbar number three all time i would simply ask basketball followers out there i’m not talking resume i’m talking talent tell me 10 players in NBA history that were better than Kevin Durant i’m talking about as a basketball just just the eyeball test i’m talking about seven feet with a 76 wingspan that can handle the rock like that that can shoot the rock like that that can finish in open court like that that could be close to a 50 40 90 player consistently that is better after an Achilles tier in his 30s than he was in his 20s when he was averaging 27 a game then I’m saying we watch the NBA we’ve seen it we’ve seen Dr j we’ve seen David Thompson we’ve seen Listen I remember downtown Freddy Brown and Dennis Johnson and all of those boys i remember Male i remember Parish i remember A i remember Isaiah i remember Joe Dum Mars i remember all of these cats okay I got you i remember Mark Auire in Dallas okay the number the former number one over i remember Ralph Samson and Hakee the Dream Elijah i remember all of them i’m challenging anybody out there to tell me that you could find 10 players in the history of basketball as talent i’m not talking resume because as LeBron so eloquently educated all of us it takes a team takes a team to win we can’t look at individuals we have to take a team okay we got it as an individual talent tell me 10 players in the history of the NBA that you can definitively look at and say that brother better than Kevin Durant take your time away he’s the best pure scorer I’ve ever personally seen i never saw George Gervin
i did he won Kevin Durant
um
and I love the Figaro uh I did see Michael Jordan his technically and his ability to jump and dunk was amazing the best pure score I’ve ever seen i don’t know about ranking i don’t feel like it frankly I don’t feel like it i can just say he’s the best pure score and here’s the other thing i have spent time at the Olympics covering him he’s the greatest Olympian we’ve ever had
and I think that’s relevant i I I mean
I think it’s relevant you know
well I think people should think it’s relevant i mean it’s not like you just walk into all those games and win he’s been instrumental right um and I love guys that play for the country because it’s no money
um you don’t get anything extra exhausted
it takes your summer for a guy that plays all the time
i think you you know look I agree on talent yeah i I don’t know that’s all I was talking about
but but also you could make a resume argument i mean people forget he was two-time MVP of the finals
you look at a top 10 list and you go “Oh this guy’s good.” Not a lot of guys are multiple MVP MVP of the NBA finals with rings and then you add the what eighth in the league in scoring all time mhm
not a bad resume as well you You’re just talking about talent but if you want to go the resume route um you know what’s interesting i think I always wonder what players think and I think even if you ask some of the greats they they would admit “Yeah Durant
yeah he’s legit.” They would say it like even these guys that are in the so-called I don’t know what top 10 those guys would say “Yeah I got Durant.”
Check Check this out check this out i’m not ranking anybody i’m just gonna be bold enough to call it like I see it charles Barkley was phenomenal he ain’t had that kind of offensive talent clyde Drexler the champion come on now not even a same class as Kevin Durant stop that now Carl Malone was one of the top two scorers in the history of basketball okay he was on Kevin Durant level matter of fact you got some people that look at Tim Duncan as a better power for some people look at Kevin McCale 5 10 feet and in money money okay I mean the list goes on and on of people that we could point to you can’t find me 10 players in NBA history that you can say were better as talent
than Kevin Durant you cannot do that you cannot do that talk about the Ma we talk people talk about Curry and Magic and the point guards i think why we talk about those guys is they both changed the game because they broke the mold curry nobody came nobody did what Curry does before he did it nobody did what Magic does and I put Kevin Durant in the same category we never saw a 7 foot two guard
before we still haven’t seen another one i mean I don’t know who the next guy so I look at these guys and I put him in a different category because they have never made someone like him before him and I don’t know that they will have one after him
and and he has a chance to elevate his resume because he’s in a great position now getting traded to Houston so if he’s able to win a title there do you think he finally silences all the critics that have been upset with the moves to the Warriors and how it didn’t pan out in Brooklyn
that would blah blah That would even silence the guy to my left that is hard it would have to it would have to no question about it but I’m what I’m saying to you is this even with my my my my cynicism my skepticism about him I still never failed to recognize the obvious greatness when I was disgusted at his move which at the time I called the weakest everybody forgot I said by a superstar in history i’m acknowledging you were a superstar and I’m telling the world he’s so great that they so dramatically shifted the balance of power that they made it made no sense to even pay attention to the NBA season listen that was the day that LeBron James gave a concession speech in Boston and when they won the Eastern Conference finals remember I think it was Darus Burke that asked I’m trying to remember who it was but I think it was Dar Burke they asked he was all happy everybody was happy Cleveland was celebrating and stuff like that and then they said all right you got Kevin D oh you know I just I just want to enjoy the moment right now i don’t even want to think about that kind of stress it was a concession speech before the damn finals even began because he knew that the Splash Brothers getting that brother Kevin Durant it was just unfair to the rest of the world okay so Chris Kanty I get where you’re coming from i appreciate it and I ain’t got no problem with your opinion because the bottom line damn it if I got a license to debate you on football you got a right to debate me on basketball but you lost this one my brother you lost you cannot find 10 dudes as a talent i ain’t talking resume as a basketball talent you cannot find 10 dudes on the planet in the history of basketball that you can definitively say is better than Kevin Durant that is ridiculous and if you say otherwise I’m going to ask ESPN to immediately drug test you it depends on how he wins the title Molly because we’ve already been established that it can’t Kevin’s not allowed to just win he’s got to win like leading the troops into battle he’s got to be like Braveheart you know on a horse like
well ain’t nobody on Houston capable of leading
well I’m just saying this is getting ridiculous though stop it it’s okay he’s got to win a certain way
well that’s what people say that’s what people say well that’s not what I say that’s what people say
but these people need to be quiet then and I don’t usually get involved in what I’m saying well get involved
let him win a title however he wins a title now it’s not going to be a certain way
but that’s what they say that’s why this question is here everybody says that they go riding in the back or whatever no that’s why does he win a title
that’s not fair stop moving the goalpost yeah
that’s what I’m saying people always move the goalpost on him so I So I’m saying it’s not just good enough for him to win people are going to say that so that’s what that’s I’m mocking the concept
good what’s Cooper flag ceiling as a pro
i don’t think he has one Molly i mean we could argue i I I think he probably safely ends up all NBA some point in his career maybe consistently that could be first second or third that that basically acknowledges being a top 15 player um but I can go further i mean he there’s no reason to say he couldn’t be an MVP of the league but I you look at Shay Gil just nobody thought he was going to be the MVP of the league certainly Joic getting drafted in the second round nobody nobody dreamed he’d even be an all-star let alone MVP um Giannis was taken in the mid first MVP you know all these guys um you Steph Curry was seven i mean you can you to say he can’t be MVP I think is irresponsible will he be i don’t know but he certainly can be the ceiling is that it’s it’s a champion it’s MVP the finals it’s all these things his game um really has room to grow as good as he is now he can even become better the
crazy thing about the draft is it’s the lifeblood of building a team teams spend years leading up to picks and millions of dollars and they try everything under the sun to identify the best players and it’s still inexact so that’s what’s so maddening and so important about tonight when I see Cooper Flag and the people that I talk to I think of a guy who’s got an incredibly high floor like he is the modern NBA player because he can play all these different positions he can handle he can shoot and the most important thing to me he’s got a seven foot wingspan so he can defend multiple positions but he wants to defend we don’t see 18 year olds very often especially talented star players who come into the league wanting to defend in fact I would almost say for me that’s what makes me the most excited about him is that his new his coach is not going to have to try to sell him on defending his ceiling to me is unclear i don’t know what his ceiling is going to be um and that’s a compliment uh but the what makes me excited about him is I am sure he’s gonna be successful his floor is so high
i think that to that point um it’s not hard to imagine him winning
he’s won at a high level and he does everything you talk about defense why do guys play defense well they want to win i mean right defense is half the game if you don’t play defense to me that kind of says you don’t really want to win that bad because you’re letting your guy go by you you’re not rotating you’re not rebounding this guy does all the things that are required to win and I think that’s why teams were so excited to get him and the Dallas Mavericks a lot of times the number one pick gets drafted by the Mavericks and that family that agent that player if they’re being honest goes “We can’t develop there we’re not going to play.” This guy will play anywhere why like you said plays defense helps you win does all the little things and can score and has got great size and has got a good mental game and and uh does quite a bit of things i think the floor is greatness uh at minimal he’s going to be that but I think the thing that I love and I’m excited most about him I point to the marketing aspect when I saw him in college and Cooper flag and they had the American flag behind him this dude is going to be a marketing wiz and if you have the kind of mentality where you’re playing defense and you could be fiery you’re demanding excellence from the people around you which we were joking about earlier right we talking about LeBron etc what people have to understand is that when you are the face of a franchise when you’re going to be drafted number one when you have that kind of hope attached to you and all the necessary parts or necessary ingredients are perceived as something you possess not just your game but your focus your attitude that it factor folks rally around you and when that happens the people around you have to be accountable otherwise they gonna bounce out of there because you’d face and you the one that the people are going to rally behind and you can make everybody in the villains if they don’t tow the line and do what’s necessary when I think about what I want as the face of a franchise I want that because I know if you if you’re committed to winning and you’re the same kind of galvanizing force that rallies the public to support you folks around you that ain’t likeminded are not going to be tolerated and that to me is how you win steph Curry did that because people don’t talk about that enough steph Curry get the greatest shooter and blah blah blah lovable you’re not going to get anyone to go against Steph Curry so when you roll up in there I remember when my man Raymond Ritter you know him very very well he told you know he’s sitting up there one day and I’m looking to talk to one of the players and one of the players like yeah he had another interview and they said “We got is 30 okay with that we got to check with him.” They didn’t say the coach they say management they said 30 because guess what steph Curry is gonna say whether it’s all right or not and you have to make sure it was all right with him that particular day I’m just talking about i’m just saying stuff like that matters it’s important and I think Cooper Flag got that potential
and speaking of Dallas even I thought this was interesting you said a fully healthy Dallas team would be the biggest threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder yes
to that you say what Bob
i I hate saying stuff that makes you look like you know what you’re talking about i mean I just
You mean like you always agree throughout the year i mean that’s what it is man you know what I’m saying yeah i mean
listen first of all the cat’s out the bag okay you know why cuz I got your ass up at 10:00 in the morning to come on first
i know you did so you know I mean everybody knows out the bag bro cat’s out the bag baby um yes i want to see a healthy Kyrie Irving i think the whole anybody likes basketball wants to see that because when they had well look they now have a guy uh a a I don’t know what you would say I’m curious what you guys where is Cooper flag right now as far as is he a top 50 player in the league right now is he a top 30 is he a top 25
i got to see him play a game
i I know but but he’s in the conversation
no I know i’m just saying but that top 50 you know you could say that and it wouldn’t be crazy the the big thing about him is he’s only only going to make $14 million in the next few years and in this in this environment where every dollar counts because you’re worried about the apron if you get a star level player making this type of money the next four years you have a window like with a quarterback getting drafted on his rookie contract you have a window to really build around
you guys really dodged my question there
no no I haven’t answered it okay let’s say he’s a top one two three center in the league okay I think a lot of people would that’s not something you’d argue too much about then you got Klay Thompson who can still make shots you’ve got a very deep team pj Washington they just signed Gaffford they got a lot of guys that can help them and Kyrie Irving people forget how great he was last year i mean I don’t His numbers were unbelievable efficient and scoring and you give if if it’s true i don’t know if it’s true i don’t know if you know if he’s actually coming back in January
well I mean
or February or even March
if you get him Molly and you’ve got that team going to the playoffs I can tell you this nobody wants to play that team
fair enough [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Brian Windhorst, Stephen A. Smith and Bob Myers join Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss if Kevin Durant is a top-10 player in the league after joining the Houston Rockets. Then, they discuss the 2025 NBA Draft and how Cooper Flagg will fit into the fold with the Dallas Mavericks.

0:00 Chris Canty calls out Stephen A.
1:14 Stephen A. counters
4:15 Windy agrees
6:00 Myers’ championship perspective
9:40 Myers on Flagg
10:37 Windy on Flagg’s “floor”
11:53 “He will play anywhere!”
14:40 Mavericks’ threat level

☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/
📱 Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og
☑️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
☑️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN #NBA