Prime George Gervin vs. Current Kevin Durant

[russwest0]

LeBron23 showing why he's one of the least respected posters here

[sportjames23]

[bizil]

Durant. A better rebounder and passer already and a better defensive player too. As far as scoring, it's virtually a tie, Durant's a better ft shooter (gets considerable more star treatment though) and clearly better from 3pt land (Gervin didn't come up with the line though), I would say Kevin is more versatile but George was even a better finisher although it can go either way, also a beast from midrange and really good at posting-up using it more and better as a weapon than Durant.

The Iceman gets underrated, he was an amazing scorer and constantly raised his game in the post-season, getting many times deep into it and almost making the Finals once.

Oh and Gervin was a SG.

U hit all the key points great! Durant is better due to having a more complete all around game. But in terms of alpha scoring scoring both are a tie. And many people need to keep in mind that Gervin was damn near as revolutionary at the SG as Durant currently is at the SF. Both had a combo of size and scoring ability, and scoring skillset the 2 and 3 spots never really saw before.

[allball]

Durant's a good 4 inches taller than Gervin so he should be a better rebounder. as for scoring Gervin not only put the ball in the hole he did at a very high percentage for his position in that era. He was an excellent shooter and finisher. He was also a great FT shooter

I had the opportunity to see Gervin play and he was just flat out unstoppable. In today's league where guys spend more time on training and development it's reasonable to say Gervin would have been even better.

If you never even saw him play disqualify yourself from being an expert on the comparison.

[Dr.J4ever]

I saw Gervin a lot, and KD is the much better player. Clear evidence of this is the success that he is having team wise and being in the conversation yearly for the Title.

A better question : who was the better scorer?

[KG215]

Odd to see how two message boards contrast. I frequently read RealGM's PC board and the first time I saw someone mention how "portable" a player is/was a year or so ago, I immediately knew what they meant -- partially because I've heard it used to some degree growing up around coaches and basketball in general. Come here and "portability" seems to be a completely foreign word to most in the context of basketball.

With that said, I can't speak of Durant's portability compared to a lot of past greats, but I can see the argument for him being more portable than LeBron. Think of it like this: if you want to build a one-star team with good to great role players, where LeBron or Durant is your one ball-dominant star, then I'd take LeBron. However, I do think you can move Durant around the league with more ease in terms of seamlessly fitting in simply because he's one of the best high volume off-ball scorers in NBA history. Granted I can't say that with 100% confidence, but he has proven time and time again in his career he can comfortably and quietly score an efficient 30-35 points on any given night by primarily playing off the ball and I'm not sure many other high volume scorers in NBA history are as capable as Durant in doing that. And while I don't think he's as good/effective in a ball-dominant, primary playmaker role as LeBron, Wade, or even T-Mac, I do think he can fill that role well enough to where you could still build a really damn good team around KD if that's the route you choose to go.

[allball]

I saw Gervin a lot, and KD is the much better player. Clear evidence of this is the success that he is having team wise and being in the conversation yearly for the Title.

A better question : who was the better scorer?

Gervin's teams were always around 50 plus wins and he led his teams to 3 conference finals despite playing with a bunch of guys most folks have never heard of.

[KevinDurant35]

I'm gonna have to go wit Kevin Durant on dis one.

[Marlo_Stanfield]

LeBron23 showing why he's one of the least respected posters here

says someone who is viewed by the majority of the posters here as a shame to mankind

[CavaliersFTW]

Gervin was a guard and occasionally swung to SF. Durant is a SF who occasionally swings to PF... not the same positions, nor do they have the same playing styles, apples to oranges, just because they're both skinny and long don't mean they play the same.

[KendrickPerkins]

Haven't seen Gervin play. With that said, I take Kevin Durant.