Kevin Durant decided to spend part of his week on Instagram arguing that the current Philadelphia 76ers are better than the Warriors teams that won two championships with him on the roster. Klay Thompson decided to spend part of his week telling KD to log off.
The exchange came after Durant doubled down on his take that the current Sixers, led by Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and LeBron James, are better on paper than the 2016-2019 Warriors.
“Ain’t close lmao,” Durant wrote in the Instagram reply that started this. “Joel, mvp recently. Jaylen brown, recent finals mvp, Tyrese Maxey, all star the last 3 years. We all know what bron does. Klay Thompson, never a mvp candidate in nothing, 22ppg. Draymond, 14ppg 7 rebounds 6 assist, Steph a mvp just like Joel was. I don’t get how the warriors team is better on paper.”
Thompson saw it and pushed back.
“Aye man, u good? What u using my full government name for?”
Durant is doing what Durant does. He wants engagement, he wants the debate, and he wants people arguing about basketball in August when nothing else is happening. He got what he wanted. The clip is bouncing around the timelines.
The problem with the take is not the effort. It is the receipts. Those Warriors teams won two championships in three years. They swept the Cavaliers. They obliterated LeBron in the 2017 Finals. They set the modern standard for how a superteam is supposed to close out an opponent. The 2026-27 Sixers, on paper or on the court, have won zero championships together. That is not a small thing when you are ranking rosters.
Durant knows this. He was on those Warriors teams. He was there for the parades. This is a bit, or it is boredom, or it is Kevin still being annoyed that the narrative around his ring count has always been complicated by joining a 73-win team.
Thompson’s response was perfect for the moment. It was casual, it was mildly incredulous, and it did not take Durant’s bait. “U good” is the polite version of “what are you doing right now.” Klay is one of the very few players who never needed to answer Kevin’s ring accounting, because Klay has as many championships as KD does.
The reality is the 76ers are a great roster on paper. Embiid, Brown, Maxey, and LeBron is a real starting core. But those Warriors were something different. Prime Steph, prime KD, prime Draymond as a defensive engine, and Klay as maybe the best off-ball shooter in the history of the sport. That is the version of small ball that ended the traditional NBA power structure.
The Sixers still have to actually win something before the paper argument gets serious.
Until then, KD talks and Klay tweets. That is the offseason we deserve.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
