Kevin Durant Flips Script, Believes "Offense Wins Championships"

Right around the time that the stakes get high for playoff teams every year, Michael Jordan’s famous quote pops up: “Defense wins championships.” Jordan is known to have said this after each of his championship wins in the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat in the '90s.

With everything that MJ has accomplished, who would argue with him? Apparently, Kevin Durant would.

In an excerpt from the second season of Netflix’s “Starting 5,” Durant offers his own take on championship-caliber play. Given the skill set that Durant has built his career on, it should come as no surprise that defense wasn’t exactly the special ingredient that he had in mind.

“You have to score baskets if you want to win a championship,” Durant says. “Playing defense, we can get any of y’all in here to bend your legs, not touch the basketball, slide left and right, and contest the shot, that’s easy.”

To purists, Durant’s opinion may come across as some sort of sacrilege, as basketball has become characterized as a game of scoring points for one’s team and stopping the other team from getting theirs. However, Durant has a resume of individual and team success (in both the NBA and international play, no less) that just forces any basketball lover to give credence to what he’s saying.

“When we’re talking about winning at a high level against the best of the best, you cannot just do that [play defense] and win a basketball game,” KD continued. “You have to make shots. And that’s why I work on my game so much.”

Though the Houston Rockets forward certainly knows what he’s talking about, there are prevailing perspectives in the basketball community that go against his ideas. At the player level, critics place the likes of Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the highest pedestal because of their well-rounded excellence on both offense and defense.

From a team perspective, there have been numerous instances of NBA squads ranking high in defensive rating and winning the title in the same season. Just this past year, Durant’s old team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, dominated defensive categories in both the regular season and the playoffs en route to claiming the 2025 NBA championship.

Perhaps the safest answer is that top-notch execution on both ends of the floor is key to success in the NBA. For Durant, though, it’s the offense that warrants more attention.