When players enter the NBA they get the chance to face off with players who they grew up watching and studying for years. For someone like Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic, that meant taking on players like Stephen Curry and his now-teammate LeBron James.
But in the eyes of Doncic, there was one player who stood out after playing him for the first time as being just as good if not better than advertised. When asked about it in an appearance on the Cousins podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Doncic listed Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant as that player, via Luka Updates:
Luka Dončić with praise for Kevin Durant 🙌
IG/trendybucketss pic.twitter.com/1Z9tPd33l6
— Luka Updates (@LukaUpdates) May 31, 2026
It is hard to argue with Doncic’s assessment as Durant is in the conversation for the best pure scorer in the history of the NBA. There has never been a player with Durant’s combination of height, ball-handling and, most importantly, his shooting ability. At seven-feet tall and with one of the purest shooting strokes the league has ever seen, Durant is a one-of-a-kind talent. So Doncic experiencing that for the first time is undoubtedly rememberable.
And Doncic will surely find himself on that list for future players entering the league as well. Many have been watching him for years at this point, but to share the court with him for the first time will be a completely different experience that will validate just how special of a player he is.
After 18 years in the league, Durant is still going strong, being named to the All-NBA Second Team and an All-Star for the 16th time in his career. He also moved into fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list and now trails only Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and, of course, LeBron James.
There is always a certain level of respect and admiration amongst those elite of elite players in any sport and sometimes you have to experience it up close and personal to really understand it. For Doncic it only took one meeting to know Durant was absolutely as good as advertised.
Luka Doncic: Winning championship with Lakers is most important
Durant is a two-time NBA Champion and NBA Finals MVP which he accomplished with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018. That is something Doncic has yet to accomplish but the Lakers star recently made it very clear that winning a championship in L.A. remains the most important thing to him.
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