“No Disrespect”- Ex-Bulls Player Picks Kawhi Leonard Over Kevin Durant in Shocking Statement

Jeff Teague sparked a debate on his own podcast when he declared that Kawhi Leonard was on the "same level" as Kevin Durant. A take spicy enough on its own to go viral during All-Star weekend. Now, his brother and co-host Marquis Teague gave a hotter take about both players. 

On a recent episode of the Club 520 Podcast, Marquis Teague didn't budge when the Kawhi-versus-KD debate came back up. "Kawhi Leonard is better than Kevin Durant to me," Teague said. "I've never seen KD carry a team like that."

Teague pointed to Leonard's lone season in Toronto as the deciding factor in his argument. "If he was on that Toronto team, they wouldn't have won," Teague said of Durant, referencing the Raptors' 2019 championship run that Leonard led as Finals MVP. He was careful to frame the take as fact rather than disrespect toward Durant's own résumé. "And I love KD, no disrespect, but that's just a fact," Teague said.

Leonard is now set to return to Toronto. The Clippers and Raptors just finalized a trade sending him back to the site of that 2019 title, coming after a lengthy, investigation-delayed process. 

During that title run, Leonard averaged 30.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists across the playoffs, capped by a Game 7 buzzer-beater against Philadelphia that remains one of the most iconic shots in NBA postseason history.

Not everyone on the podcast was ready to concede the argument, and Durant's own accomplishments gave the debate something to consider.

Durant has won a regular-season MVP, two Finals MVP awards and two championships with Golden State, along with four scoring titles across a career that's spanned parts of five franchises.

Even Jeff Teague, who first brought up the comparison, stopped short of calling Leonard outright better.

He framed his own take as Leonard being "on the same level" rather than superior. Durant's durability case is also complicated by Leonard's own extensive injury history, which has limited him to under 55 games in four of the last seven seasons.

Between Marquis Teague's blunt ranking and Durant's own trophy case, the debate over who's truly the better player looks unlikely to be settled anytime soon.

But with Leonard now heading back to the exact franchise that fuels the strongest part of Teague's argument, at least one side of the comparison is about to get a fresh chapter to build on.