According to Brian Windhorst, LeBron James and Kevin Durant are working out together once again this offseason:
“LeBron & Durant are back working out with each other in preparation for training camp. Last year they called it ‘hell week.’ “
I like the idea of these two working together, because they seem to push each other to be better and also seem to have fun doing so. During their “Hell Week” last season, the two came together for a myriad of workouts, culminating in the two gathering up teams for a flag football game.
Many people made a big deal of these two “rivals” working out together, especially when they are trying to beat each other. I never saw anything wrong with that. They are two of the best players in the world deciding to come together and improve their games for the upcoming season. A lot of people believe that when guys are this close in talent, they should be complete rivals and not have any bonding off the field/court (for example, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas). But many people forget that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson formed a rivalry starting in COLLEGE that led to the NBA (with historically rival teams) and still have a friendship 30 years later. If you ask them, being friends HELPED make them better, because they wanted to beat the other.
LeBron just gained his 1st championship ring at the expense of Durant and I’m quite sure they are aware of that. But I like that Durant has enough perspective to know that his time is coming, and who we works out with doesn’t effect his work ethic and drive to be great.
Granted we are living in a new era, where rivalries seem to be dying, but that doesn’t mean we should start creating them just because.