Until the day he retires, and probably long after that, Kevin Durant will be a polarizing player.
But for Stephen A. Smith, one thing he’ll never be is a “bus rider.”
That terminology has become one of Charles Barkley’s go-to lines when he wants to criticize Durant. By bus rider, Barkley is insinuating that Durant just rode on the coattails of the Warriors’ in-house stars when he won two titles with Golden State.
It’s more fair to criticizes Durant for ring-chasing than being a bus rider. Durant was a hugely efficient player in Golden State, and the impact his absence had on the 2019 Finals is clear evidence that he was, in fact, contributing to the success. Go figure.
Barkley and Durant have feuded publicly before, including last summer. But Barkley ramped things back up last week when he called Durant “sensitive” during an appearance on 60 Minutes. Durant has since fired back, and Smith said on his “Know Mercy” podcast that he’s Team Durant.
"You can’t find 10 dudes in the NBA that were 7-feet tall, that could shoot from that range, with those ball-handling skills,” Smith said after stating that from a skill standpoint, Durant could be a top-10 player all time. “He can shoot from anywhere on the basketball court, plus he is reliable from the free throw line, plus he can do his thing defensively. The issue with Kevin Durant is his level of aggression or lack thereof. That’s it. That’s it. …
“So when my man, my brother, my friend Charles Barkley goes on the air and he says Kevin Durant is too sensitive – well, yes. But he has a right to be, especially when you call him a bus rider, as Charles Barkley did. … I still think it’s kind of wrong to call KD that. Basically riding the coattails of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. They rode him too.
“It ain’t like they didn’t want him, or go to Long Island to beg him to come to the Bay Area. You ain’t doing that for no bus rider. I’m not disrespecting Kevin Durant that way. I’m not doing it.”
Again, Durant certainly is not above criticism. But calling him a bus rider, to Smith's point, might be a bridge too far.
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