Bulls.com's Sam Smith: Is Kevin Durant Better Than LeBron James?

Here's one thing I have learned over the years following the NBA from multiple markets: the hometown team's fans will overvalue their own players to embarrassingly high levels. That's why living in Portland and being from Cleveland is quite unique. I get the Blazers crammed down my throat 24/7, yet the internet allows me to stay dialed in with the Cavs. Local honks in Oregon will act like Hedo Turkoglu would be the best thing to hit Portland since Arvydas Sabonis, then they'll tell you how Hedo is a waste of space and wouldn't have been a good fit anyways. And after spending a week telling you how Paul Millsap will be LaMarcus Aldridge's backup even though he could start for at least 25 other teams, they'll tell you how David Lee is better, anyways, once Utah matches Millsap's offer.Cavalier fans are just as guilty. (Off-topic: Nothing pisses me off more than Cleveland fans who balk at using Zydrunas Ilgauskas as a trade chip because "Z must retire a Cavalier." I think making sure no. 23 retires a Cavalier is a bigger deal right now, but that's just me.)But now, I'm walking a delicate line between Blazer fans and Cavalier fans. That's because the topic I am about to bring up is going to be very sensitive for both fan bases to converse about. And although the player that it involves is not on either team's roster, I am sure both teams wished like crazy that he was.The difference is that the Blazers could have actually had him.But, Cavalier fans, is Kevin Durant better than LeBron James? Even now? That's blasphemy! Sacrilegious! How...how dare I even mention it?Calm down -- I'm not the one saying this. And, reportedly, it's not just one person saying this, either. From Sam Smith of Bulls.com:It's being whispered now among NBA types because, I believe, under a secret NBA/ESPN provision you are not permitted to say aloud anything that might be interpreted to suggest LeBron James isn't the best thing to ever happen in anyone's life. But sitting in the stands in Las Vegas at the USA Basketball mini-camp and hearing NBA coaches and general managers, the gasps have been for Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant. I've now heard more than one say Durant could be a better player than James given Durant's combination of amazing size at about 6-10 and pure shooting stroke. And he's still 20. The feeling is Durant is on the brink of being a 30 per game scorer. Plus, Durant is a serious worker. The Bulls' Derrick Rose has become close with Durant and the two have worked out together considerably this summer. Said Rose, who is five days younger than Durant: "KD is great. He's real talented. I look at him as like a big brother to me even though we're the same age. He's been in the league longer. He's a great talent, 6-10 guy who can dribble, shoot like a guard. He's going to be a great talent in the league."Look, I'm not going to lie. I sweat Kevin Durant. Earlier this year, I wrote a piece on another site talking about how the Blazers passing up on Durant for Oden was Jordan/Bowie 2.0. Of course, Oregonians -- most of them in serious denial -- attacked me as if I had just threatened to rat out their meth house. It is a shame that fans don't really know much about Durant. He's stuck in Oklahoma City playing for a rogue franchise that is nothing on the basketball hierarchy. You can even argue that outside of Sonic fans, no one has suffered more from the move to Oklahoma City than Durant since playing in a visible market like Seattle would have done wonders for his marketability compared to playing in OKC. I am willing to bet that you, the reader, have never watched Kevin Durant play more than once in his entire professional career. And that "once" probably came at some All-Star Game festivity last February.Odds are that you may even be one of many who heard that Durant couldn't even bench 185 pounds at the pre-draft camp, laughed him off, and forgot who he was altogether. There are quite a few people like that out there.Of course, if you read ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, then you probably get Durant shoved down your throat at an alarmingly high rate. But when it comes to Simmons, he is clearly one of the few who "gets it" with Durant. Here's an excerpt from The Sports Guy's annual "NBA Trade Value" column from this past February:Before you make fun of my bromance with KD, explain how a kid who just turned 20 four months ago has basically been averaging a 29-8 with 49-88-45 percentages and this isn't a national story. I mean, you should be tired of hearing about Durant by now. By the way, he's averaging 31.9 ppg, 8.1 rpg and 45.4 mpg over the past 12 games, six of them wins. Here's his game log if you don't believe me. And check those numbers compared to a 21-year-old LeBron in Year 2, or Kobe's third season when he turned 20. Hmmmm. What do you think Durant has to do to crack one of the first three segments on "PTI"? Score 40 for five straight games? I'm just curious. Again, he's 20. He's can't drink yet. This whole paragraph is making me feel bromantic.While Durant is not a better player than LeBron right now, there is little doubt in my mind that he is a more skilled player. I take KD's jumper and perimeter game over LeBron's any freaking day, although LeBron is a far superior all-around player at this point of their respective careers. And they are both just as explosive as scorers.And if you are simply a numbers guy (or gal), then Durant's stats in his second year match up well with LeBron's from his sophomore campaign. Sure, Durant is nowhere near LeBron as a defender, but James didn't develop into an upper-level defender until his fifth year in the league. And while you can knock on Durant for not leading his team to the playoffs, LeBron's Cavs weren't a playoff team in his second year, either.Once again, I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, saying that Kevin Durant is better than LeBron James. But I'm willing to listen to the argument. And I'm especially willing to listen to the argument that Durant could one day be better than or equal to King James.Which brings me back to the Blazers.There seems to be an unwritten rule -- no, make that law -- in Portland to never bring up Durant's name. Never talk about what could have been with Durant instead of Oden. When Durant's name is brought up, it's best to reply with, "Oh, Brandon Roy is better, anyways." Or "G.O.'s gonna break out this year, you just watch!" If NBA fans are in awe of the franchise's rapid ascent back to respectability from the "Jail Blazer" days, then they are cheating themselves if they don't imagine what that team would be like with Durant playing small forward with Roy running as his sidekick. (Any Blazer fan who thinks it would be the other way around in the pecking order, stop reading this right now and go away. Just stop. Go away.)LeBron and Kobe are wrestling for the honor of the world's best basketball player right now. But Kobe turns 31 next month, and there is a lot of tread on those tires. So what will happen when Kobe is either past his prime or retired in a few years? Who will wrestle LeBron as his challenger as the league's best individual talent?It is going to be Kevin Durant, and the only freshman to ever win NCAA Player of the Year honors is more than equipped to be up to the task.And while we get LeBron free agency talk stuffed in our faces 24/7 as Cavs fans, what about a guy like Durant? He is a restricted free agent in 2011 and can go unrestricted in 2012, when he will only be 24. You don't hear much talk about that, do you?Just like his game and status as a legitimate superstar in the game today, you should. Because although the NBA has no business being there, the league's best-kept secret is secretly and silently stashed away in the heartland of Oklahoma.And how Kevin Durant has managed to stay a "secret" for this long is just beyond me.