Prior to Game 4, Kevin Durant had struggled mightily in the Nets first round series against the Celtics, averaging 22 points per game on 36.5 percent shooting as the Nets fell behind 3-0. While he went out swinging to end the sweep, scoring 39 points in a tight Game 4 loss, his early effort raised questions for some about his ability to be the Guy to lead a championship team.
Among the most prominent of those was Charles Barkley, who pointed out how different it is to be leading the charge as opposed to being a “bus rider,” insinuating that Durant’s two titles in Golden State were more from jumping on a super team than him taking them to a different level. That got a number of responses, including some funny ones from proud championship bus riders like Channing Frye and Brendan Haywood.
As a certified championship bus rider I’m offended and slightly triggered, but it was one hell of a ride though.
#2011mavs https://t.co/gIJlrufAZ0
— Brendan Haywood (@bwood_33) April 25, 2022
16’ cavs on that ride w/Kyrie,lebron, an Kevin, lol. knocking off @Rjeff24 cause his Breathe smells! https://t.co/KD9aLiiqQY pic.twitter.com/xmFFE8vj7I
— Channing Frye (@channingfrye) April 25, 2022
On Tuesday, Durant decided it was time to respond to Barkley with a few photos he posted to his Instagram story reminding everyone of the time Barkley tried to be a bus rider himself, but fell short of a title anyways.
Barkley has gone after KD for forming super teams in the past and his efforts in Houston to team up with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler (and later Scottie Pippen) certainly seem to fly in the face of his staunch anti-super team stance. In this case, he went after Durant’s legacy, which got him yelled at by Kenny Smith on Monday night, who pointed out it had been three rough games for KD and he wasn’t willing to reassess his place in history off of that sample.
“This dude is getting outplayed by Jayson Tatum.”
Chuck and @TheJetOnTNT continued their debate about KD being “The Bus Driver” pic.twitter.com/wHUOUb75f3
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 25, 2022
The point Barkley seems to be trying to make is that he’s grown tired of hearing about Durant being the best player in the world, as he noted that title belongs to Giannis despite Kenny never saying anything to the contrary, when he’s fallen flat in this series and allowed the Celtics to frustrate him into so many mistakes and poor shooting nights. That is a fair argument, but as can happen with the Inside the NBA crew, sometimes the effort to make a point ends up in a shouting match and taking shots at someone’s legacy, which KD seems to have taken issue with understandably.