Threatened by Penalties of Becoming a member of Kevin Garnett and Extra, Ex-NBA Star Ended Up Avoiding Kevin Durant’s Destiny

The ‘Bus driver vs bus rider’ debate has change into a giant speaking level within the NBA in recent times. And if anybody has suffered essentially the most from it, it’s Kevin Durant. The time period bus driver within the NBA is a metaphor to point gamers who shoulder the accountability of their workforce. In the meantime, the time period bus rider signifies function gamers on a workforce. Nevertheless, it was not as if gamers earlier than KD didn’t concern struggling the same destiny by way of criticism. One of the latest names that got here ahead is former Sacramento Kings star Chris Webber.

Spending his prime years in a very good Sacramento franchise, Webber talked about he might have tried to chase championships and soar on totally different groups. However he most popular shedding to gamers like Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett (in Minnesota), and Karl Malone. “Because at that time it was, as Isiah Thomas calls it, the bus driver against the bus driver. So being the best player, if I lost to those guys, that was fine. Because my mentality was, if you go join them, you’re the weakest cat of them all,” Webber stated on the Inexperienced Mild podcast.

He additional talked about that teaming up with large names within the NBA to meet NBA championship aspirations would solely have pacified the followers. The 5x All-Star feels contented along with his profession selections. “Cause my, at that time, it was me against them (the above names), our team against them, the leader against them,” he stated.

Throughout his 7-year keep in Sacramento, the Kings reached the Playoffs every time. In reality, they had been arguably the perfect workforce within the West after the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. Regardless of reaching quite a few Convention Semis and 1 Convention Finals, the Kings had been by no means in a position to get one over Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal’s Lakers or Tim Duncan’s Spurs.

Notably, Webber received many awards and accolades however an NBA championship in his profession. Nevertheless, he by no means tried touchdown on a workforce that was already successful to offer him a shot at securing a championship. And this was one thing Durant confronted extreme criticism for.

A glance again on Kevin Durant’s bus driver controversy

The basis reason behind the terminology for Durant is his transfer from OKC to Golden State Warriors. Though he received two championships (2017 and 2018) with the workforce, the Warriors had been already the perfect workforce within the league. They’d received the 2015 NBA championship and ended subsequent season with the all-time common season report (73-9) whereas beating Durant’s Thunder on the best way to the Finals, which they finally misplaced.

Nevertheless, the criticism turned extreme after Charles Barkley in his analogy referred to as Durant a ‘bus rider’, quite than a ‘bus driver’ again in 2022. “I don’t want to badmouth the dude… You guys always talk about that championship stuff. I try to tell y’all. All these bus riders. They don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about you a champion,” he stated on ‘Inside the NBA’ after his star-studded Brooklyn Nets bought swept within the first spherical of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics.

The 2x NBA champ didn’t maintain again both, as he referred to as him a “hatin old head” in a publish on X. He additional alleged that Barkley can not digest the truth that gamers now are making greater than what his era did. “It’s just timing Chucky, don’t hate the playa,” additional learn the publish. Whereas the consultants have again and again clashed on this, the followers additionally stand divided of their opinion of the entire “bus driver” and “bus rider” logic. 

Keep tuned for extra such updates. And to observe what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say in regards to the Reese-Clark rivalry and extra, watch this video.