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Kevin Durant is a basketball junkie. When he isn't actually on the court working on his craft, he's on his phone or his computer watching videos of current and former players.
"I'm supposed to be that way. I'm a student of the game," the two-time NBA Finals MVP told Shams Charania of The Athletic. "I got to know every single thing, the ins and outs, and every advantage I can gain. Not by just standing in front of the film and breaking every single clip down, but knowing tendencies, knowing players, knowing what they like to do, their moves.
"I read articles after playoff series to see what guys are talking about, and try to gain an advantage of the court. When I get in the mood, I just watch and watch. My appreciation for the game is on another level right now."
Of all of the hours and hours of film review, which three players stand out the most to Durant?
"Kobe (Bryant), MJ (Michael Jordan) and Kyrie (Irving)," Durant revealed. "Just the way they move, I don't understand why people don't realize what they're seeing in these three, especially Jordan and Kobe. Kyrie is younger than me, and that's one of my best friends, so I watch his stuff.
"I get to play with Steph every day, so I know his game inside and out. But watching Kobe and Mike, I'm like, ‘How do you not realize how good these dudes are?' How do you not say they're by far better than anybody who's played the game? Just by the way they move, how fluid they are."
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Durant never played with Jordan -- who retired for good after the 2002-03 season -- but he played against Kobe for years, and the two were teammates with USA Basketball.
[RELATED: KD shares advice he received to get past Draymond incident]
As a guest on The Bill Simmons Podcast back in March, Durant said he fell in love with Irving's game when they faced each other in the 2017 Finals. He referred to Kyrie as a "king hooper."
That's it for now -- gotta go watch some old videos of Jordan on YouTube ...
Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller
