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Brian Windhorst
“CRANK THAT (SOULJA BOY)” was the No. 1 song on the Billboard charts. “Saw IV” was the top movie at the box office. The first iPhone had just been released.
And Kevin Durant and LeBron James played against each other for the first time.
It was a forgettable preseason game in October 2007 in which James had 14 points and barely played in the second half, and Durant, a rookie, came off the bench to score 15 points, including a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that iced an eventual five-point win for the Seattle SuperSonics.
“I don’t even remember it,” James said in 2023. “And I remember a lot.”
Durant and James are OGs, graybeards, uncs or however you want to classify them. They’ve been part of the NBA in three different decades and have grown older alongside each other through a series of mile markers.
They trained together in late summers in James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio, running up a notorious hill next to James’ high school as stunned students peeked out windows.
They played a flag football game against each other and streamed it for free online during the 2011 lockout (James’ team clinched the win with his late pick-six).
They engaged in one of the few memorable recent All-Star moments when, as team captains in 2022, they hilariously avoided picking James Harden in the wake of Harden asking for a trade away from Durant’s Brooklyn Nets.
Last summer in Paris, they were pillars of Team USA in winning a second Olympic gold together a full dozen years after they’d won in London.
And, of course, they played in three NBA Finals against each other, James winning with the Miami Heat against Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012; and Durant winning with the Golden State Warriors over James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017 and 2018.
“We both think we should have more rings,” James said last summer during the Olympics, “but don’t because of each other.”
AFTER 18 SEASONS, 43 games against each other, 14 Finals matchups (plus one NBA Cup quarterfinal), James and Durant are still finding ways to refresh their rivalry. And again, this season, it promises to be one of the league’s leading storylines, as Durant will play against James wearing his sixth different jersey, this time with the Houston Rockets, after yet another blockbuster transaction involving one of these two future first-ballot Hall of Famers.
James will face Durant with a new superstar sidekick for the fourth time (if you’re counting Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis on the list) as he enters his first full season alongside Luka Doncic (Durant has yet to face the Lakers when both play).
“LeBron always emphasizing keeping the main thing, the main thing,” Durant said at the Olympics last summer.
“To still get up and go to the gym at 6 a.m. and want to put up 1,000 shots every day. To still love the game the way you love it with all the distractions that are being thrown at you. To deal with the high expectations from everybody being thrown at you. To keep that joy and love for the game first is something I admire. That’s what keeps me going, that love of the game. When you see him as a teammate and you see how he prepares, it brings a smile to my face.”
The Lakers and Rockets are expected to compete for playoff positioning all season, with James and Durant remaining, all these years later, the headliners. They both play opening night. They will face off again on Christmas Day, the fifth time they have been scheduled to play on the NBA’s marquee regular-season tentpole.
“If you don’t have that burning feeling in your stomach or your nerves when you’re competing against the best, then I guess at that point you know it’s over with,” James said last season. “If you’re not getting up to play KD or Steph [Curry] or some of the great talents we have in the league, then I’ve lost my drive of what the game is about.”
But there are two other distinct ways in which James and Durant find themselves side-by-side again as they start the 2025-26 season, James’ 23rd year and Durant’s 19th.
Numerous times in their careers they were certified leaders of superteams, whether it was James in Cleveland or Miami, or Durant in Golden State, Brooklyn and (at least an attempt at one) in Phoenix. But now, for the first time, they’re both looking up at the same one — and a better one.
After winning the championship in June and then signing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren to maximum contract extensions in July, the Oklahoma City Thunder qualify.
James (10) and Durant (four) have a combined 14 Finals appearances between them, but for either to add to that number this season, there’s a strong chance they might not just have to beat each other in the postseason but also find a way to unseat the defending champs.
The Thunder are stocked with youth and depth, and built, in many ways, to undercut the era that James and Durant ushered in with their high-profile free agent moves and blockbuster trades that aimed to create championship cores over a few days in July.
When Durant and James played that first time in 2007, Gilgeous-Alexander was just 9 years old. Williams was 6. Holmgren was 5.
“We’re at the point where we’ve got guys that were kids when we were first in the league and we inspired them,” Durant said last year. “And now we’re playing against them.”
THE OTHER THROUGHLINE is that, for the first time, both James and Durant face legitimate uncertainty about their futures after the 2025-26 season, in part because the changing nature of team building has forced their teams to maneuver around and past them.
James and the Lakers did not negotiate a new contract this summer, and after James picked up his player option and assured he would be a free agent in 2026, it marked the first time in his career he has no contract or option for the next season.
The Lakers have, naturally, pivoted from structuring their future around the 40-year-old James as the centerpiece to the 26-year-old Doncic, who signed a highly celebrated three-year extension earlier this month.
When Durant gave the Suns a list of teams to which he’d want to be traded and included the Rockets, it implied that he would be willing to extend his contract there as part of a trade.
But there was no contract worked out as part of the deal in June, and, like James, he’s also ticketed to be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The Rockets and Durant have had discussions about a new contract and there is belief they will come to terms, sources said, but they’ve yet to come to an agreement.
Durant, like James, is no longer viewed as a centerpiece, as Houston builds around a young core of players it acquired through the draft.
The Rockets view Durant as a final component, a veteran who graduates them into true contender status, while they manage taking care of core players such as Jabari Smith Jr. and Fred VanVleet, both of whom signed large contracts this summer, and Alperen Sengun, a 2025 All-Star who signed a big deal the summer of 2024. But there is also Amen Thompson and Tari Eason to consider, two young players who are in position to be paid new deals over the next year.
In the end, Durant might need to accept less than a maximum contract, which he has been on since 2011, if he wants to stay in Houston.
Like James sunsetting as the face of his franchise, no one is trying to purposely insult these former MVPs. Both teams are simply facing the modern realities or roster building for contending teams in the apron era.
Still, before anyone cues the retrospectives, James made second team All-NBA last season and Durant averaged 26.6 points and shot 50% or better for the 13th consecutive season.
James and Durant, if they are able to stay healthy, will again have a major say on the way this season unfolds. They aren’t slowing down, even if their age suggests they should.
“I’ve had so many battles with KD over the years and we don’t have many matchups left,” James said after a game against the Suns last winter. “You don’t want to ever take it for granted.”