Kevin Durant Roasted for 'GOAT' Comments, but Real Answer Is Complex

Kevin Durant believes he knows exactly why he isn't in the GOAT conversation along with some of the greatest players of all time.

"Because I went to the Warriors," Durant told the Arizona Republic in a recent interview. "Why shouldn't I be in that? That's the question you should ask. Why not? What haven't I done?"

Durant, who now plays for the Phoenix Suns, certainly didn't help his GOAT candidacy by spending three years on a juggernaut Golden State Warriors team. Still, the reason he isn't a part of the conversation runs a little deeper than that.

On paper, Durant has enough on his résumé to raise the conversation. He's a 13-time All-Star and a 10-time All-NBA selection with a regular-season MVP, four scoring titles, two rings and two Finals MVP awards. He will surpass 30,000 points in the next couple of years with good health (he's already 10th all-time), and he's averaging 29.2 points per game in his 16th season. In other words, Durant has longevity, rings, points and MVPs.

Part of the reason he's not in the debate is because there's no formal award—the GOAT conversation is something of a living document, which means a player needs to be so remarkable that he forces his way into it organically.

For years, the consensus was that Michael Jordan was the greatest of all time. There were a few factions that might argue, of course. Some fans might have made the case for Bill Russell (based on rings), or Wilt Chamberlain (based on stats), or Kobe Bryant (based on cultural impact). LeBron James may or may not be the greatest basketball player of all time, but in either case his greatness was so pronounced that it forced people who watch basketball to reexamine why they accepted conventional wisdom about Jordan.

Durant has never prompted those conversations for a number of reasons, and his comments suggest he knows exactly why.

"KD, this is what they meant when they said your chips would have an asterisk," user @Lecks_ posted on X (formerly Twitter).

"The problem with@KDTrey5 is NOT that he joined a super team... It's that HE JOINED A TEAM HE COULDN'T BEAT. A team that literally just had the best record in history right before signing him & the reigning 2x MVP, two of the top 5 shooters in history, and a top defensive player," user @jamesmartinezny wrote.

"Steph Curry won a championship with Harrison Barnes, then with KD, then replaced KD with Wiggins and still won. Those rings don't move a soul," user @RussFcb wrote.

"KD still ringless whoever counts those 2 fake avenger rings should stop talking ball," user @ChiefOttoSosa added.

And, of course, there's the fact that being excluded from the GOAT conversation doesn't mean a player is any less "great."

"KD one of the best players of my lifetime and his career has been special. With being said he is nowhere near the GOAT convo and it's comical to suggest the only reason he's not is the GS move lol," user @brooklynnets85 wrote. "This isn't a diss though one of the best players of this generation."

All of that helps explain why Durant isn't in the conversation—and why he probably won't ever be. He has accolades, and he's unique in NBA history as one of the greatest, most unstoppable scorers we've ever seen. He's even influential like some of the greats—plenty of tall players added ball-handling and shooting skills instead of post moves as a result of watching Durant dominate smaller defenders as a near-7-foot wing.

But the "GOAT" conversation is complex—much more complex than, for instance, the MVP conversation or the All-Star conversation—and it requires a lot of things to go right for a player to be in consideration. Jordan needed a perfect record in the Finals. James needed to live up to the hype that followed him since high school. Russell needed unprecedented winning. Chamberlain probably needed to score 100 points in a single game.

Durant needed multiple rings without asterisks attributed to them by fans. At this stage, it's unclear whether that will ever happen.