Kevin Durant has yet to play a single game for the Houston Rockets. He is not a Rockets great, and it’s possible he never will be. However, even if his Finals MVPs might not have the glow of some others, he is an NBA great. The Rockets have some big names hanging from the rafters. They’ve also had some big names pass through without leaving a jersey behind. KD might be one of those. But the question is, will he be the biggest?
Ranking Kevin Durant Among Greats Who Played For The Rockets
Number One
Well, actually, the question is whether he’ll be the second biggest. Hakeem Olajuwon is clearly number one. Rockets great, NBA great, it doesn’t matter (shockingly, a single age-39 season with the Toronto Raptors doesn’t significantly alter his legacy), Olajuwon is ahead of KD.
Such is the congested nature of NBA history that Olajuwon doesn’t always make all-time top ten lists. Titles have a lot to do with that. Nobody else in serious contention for a top-ten spot has fewer than three. But Olajuwon’s two championships definitely have plenty of glow. Olajuwon won Finals MVP in 1994 with no other All-Stars on the roster. The six-seed 1995 Rockets were the lowest-ever seeded team to win a championship. Olajuwon is in the Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan category: routinely ranked anywhere from top-five to twelfth.
It’s not unheard of for Durant to be mentioned in that range either. Some people probably even rank Durant ahead of Olajuwon, though certainly not any Rockets fans. A top 10-20 range is generally a more common estimate for him. What that does is put him ahead of a lot of other greats who played for the Rockets.
The Honourable Mentions
Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen are two names that come to mind. Opposites in many ways, both players occupy similar spots in the 20-40 range. Pippen was a professional champion. He was vital to all six championships won by Michael Jordan‘s Bulls. He was also probably the best defensive wing in NBA history. Barkley, on the other hand, was empty-handed on rings and often left his team short-handed on defense.
The offensively sensational (and sometimes sensationally offensive) Barkley is a more interesting comparison with Durant because their careers took similar paths. In his prime, Barkley was commonly regarded as the second-best player in the NBA. The only player ahead of him was the formerly-unanimous G.O.A.T., Michael Jordan.
Likewise, in his prime, Durant was the widely recognized second-best player behind LeBron James, the man who puts the “formerly” in Michael Jordan’s “formerly-unanimous G.O.A.T.” status. Both players even tried the same trick to get past their oh-so-brilliant adversaries. They teamed up with the widely recognised third-best players. Durant teamed up with Stephen Curry, and Barkley teamed up with Olajuwon. Barkley’s version of the scheme didn’t work because he and Olajuwon were both past their primes. KD got a couple of championships out of it. It may not make KD a bus driver in Chuck’s eyes, but it does bump him up in the rankings.
It bumps him ahead of Rockets great James Harden, for instance. Even if KD wins a championship with Houston, it’s extremely unlikely he’d surpass Harden as a Rockets great at this point in his career. Even leaving aside time served, the current version of KD just doesn’t warp defenses to the same devastating extent as prime Harden. Nonetheless, Durant’s ranking as an NBA great surpasses Harden’s considerably.
Number Two
But there’s another Rockets great who has a better case. While the grannyshot maestro, Rick Barry, deserves mention, ranking him over Durant would be underhanded. Instead, KD’s competition for the number two spot comes from the woefully unheralded Moses Malone. Malone was a three-time MVP, an eight-time First Team All-NBA member, a twelve-time All-Star, and a six-time rebounding leader. He was also the 1983 NBA Finals MVP, his first season after leaving the Rockets.
Again, Malone and Durant have a lot in common. They both jumped ship from the teams where they became stars. They both won titles alongside costars of similar stature. Malone’s championship Philadelphia 76ers also featured the talents of Julius Erving, a.k.a. Dr. J. Like KD, Malone wouldn’t stay in his new home beyond a handful of seasons. He became a mercenary, touring the league, playing for five more teams before he retired, two of them at an All-Star level.
Malone’s unattached quality is often cited as a major reason for his underappreciated legacy. Houston fans don’t rave about him because he never brought them a title and left them for a better situation. Philly fans will always have more love for “their guy,” Dr. J. Durant’s legacy will inevitably face a similar quandary. Not to the same extent, though. The nature of fandom has moved on in such a way that there are plenty of unaffiliated Durant fans.
The Slim Reaper vs the Chairman of the Boards
As for ranking one over the other, differing opinions abound. Even today, the center position is the most impactful one on the basketball court. The actual basket, after all, is the highest value part of it. The center is the one who’s generally closest to it, both horizontally and vertically. There are just more opportunities to be impactful.
But greatness is a difficult attribute to measure and compare. Malone can seem like just another fantastic, but ultimately limited, big man. He was a great rebounder, but statistically not as great as Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell (though their rebounding numbers are grotesquely inflated by the era). Malone was an imposing interior scorer, but certainly no Shaquille O’Neal or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And while he was an impactful defender, they named the Defensive Player of the Year award after Olajuwon.
Durant, on the other hand, is arguably something the league has never seen before or since. His handle and shooting touch at his size are essentially unprecedented and seemingly irreplicable. Should Malone be penalized for playing an all-time talent-loaded position? Is Durant’s greatness elevated by the fact that he could play center but doesn’t have to?
Their achievements are comparable. Durant was on eleven All-NBA teams to Malone’s eight. Malone has three MVPs to Durant’s one, but Durant has two Finals MVPs to Malone‘s one. Scoring champion, rebounding leader. Curry, Dr. J.
The Last Word
KD versus Malone is a valid basketball debate that invites as much nuance as Jordan versus LeBron, but about a hundredth of the interest. If Durant has any interest in resolving the debate, then 2025-26 may be his best opportunity to do so. Before Durant can be the second greatest player to ever play for the Rockets, he has to actually play for the Rockets. Maybe he can add a little to his own greatness with a third championship in the process. Rockets fans will certainly be rooting for him. For right now, most of them would probably agree: the ranking goes Olajuwon, Malone, then Durant.
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