Kevin Durant And Draymond Green Are Having An Interesting Debate

Kevin Durant and Draymond Green have had an interesting relationship, to say the least. Seven years after their time together in Golden State, the two All-Stars are apparently not seeing eye to eye on a fundamental basketball issue.

During an episode of the second season of Netflix’s “Starting 5,” Durant expressed his belief that “offense wins championships,” arguing that scoring baskets is of paramount importance in the sport. Green, meanwhile, expressed his disagreement with this opinion in a recent interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic.

“Those who don’t believe defense is as valuable as it is, they simply just don’t win,” Green fired back. “I don’t think anyone’s ever really been hell-bent on caring about the opinion of those that don’t win, because your opinion equals zero.”

These comments had some glaring implications, and Amick voiced them out. “So I hear you, but Kevin has won.”

Green, who has never been known to back down from tough opponents and tough opinions alike, didn’t budge. 

“He won here, the defense here was…”

Amick finished the sentence for him. “Incredible.”

To Green’s credit, the Warriors were an impressive defensive unit at the time that they were winning four NBA championships in the 2010s. This, of course, won’t be the biggest takeaway of many fans reading his comments.

The question is, was Green taking a shot at his former teammate, whose resume contained no NBA titles before he joined the Warriors in 2017? There’s no way to establish this for sure, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Green and Durant have clashed. During a tense game between the Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2018-19 season, the two infamously exchanged words on the Golden State bench after Green opted not to swing the ball to Durant in the dying seconds of regulation.

Durant ended up leaving the Warriors after that season, but for what it’s worth, he and Green cleared the air years later. In a 2021 online show for Bleacher Report, the two former teammates pinned the blame on the Warriors front office for driving a wedge between them.

Of course, even if Green and Durant have settled whatever personal issues were brewing between them, neither of them is immune to differences of opinion. Soon after Amick’s piece on Green was published, Durant tweeted a simple rebuttal.

“And the offense was????”

Durant and Green will have to settle this debate the old-fashioned way: Lead their teams to the playoffs and see how far either offense or defense will take them.