LeBron denies Cavs-Warriors rivalry; Durant disagrees
Having exchanged mouthfuls of trash talk and split a pair of titles, it's clear to everyone that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are rivals.
Kevin Durant has only been in the Bay for a few months and he already feels the bad blood, but LeBron James refused to acknowledge the rivalry between the league's two top teams.
"We don't look at it as a rival," James told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. "They're a great team. They've been the best team the last couple years, last three years."
To James, their upcoming showdown on Monday is only one of 82 on the schedule.
"It's just the next game, it's Golden State," James said. "They're a helluva team, like I said the best team in the league and they've been that way the last three years, four years, however long it's been, I'm not quite sure. But, listen, you guys know, we don't put all our eggs in one basket for one game."
Durant had a different assessment.
"Yeah (it's a rivalry)," Durant told CSN's Monte Poole. "I think so."
"I’m new here, but for the most part the guys in the last two Finals have been playing against each other for a while. From Steph (Curry) to LeBron. to Klay (Thompson) to (Iman) Shumpert, to J.R. Smith and Kyrie ... and Draymond, it’s a group of players that are familiar with each other.
"It’s good for our game. It’s good for competition and it should be fun," Durant added."
For a supposed non-rivalry, the Warriors and Cavaliers seem to constantly have one another on the brain. Even though the two teams only play twice a year in the regular season, the two sides regularly exchange barbs through in the media.
This week saw Klay Thompson call out the Cavaliers for their "childish" antics, while Shumpert recently promised to "bust they ass" in a potential Finals rematch. Cleveland also trolled the Warriors with a carefully-placed poster of James' block from Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, while James himself has gotten in on the fun by trolling the Warriors with decorations at a Halloween party.