Durant sparks controversy: They think they're catching up, but Jokić learns from us

Serbia played great at the Olympics in Paris, and was one step closer to beating the US. However, the US team picked up the pace and managed to beat the Serbs with 95:91.

Basketball fans were amazed by the sacrifice and quality of the Serbian team, which was just a little short of reaching the finals.

After that, the narratives started that the USA does not have the necessary quality, experiencing a huge decline. However, such an opinion is not shared by many, including Kevin Durant, a popular NBA basketball player.

Durant was a guest on podcast, being asked whether Serbia caught up with the USA in basketball because of such a game, but the experienced basketball player does not believe in such things.

"No, of course they didn't get to us. We beat Serbia three times last summer.

One game? That everyone can have one game against us to look solid. France beat us once, so we beat them in 2021 and in the previous Olympics in the final," Durant said.

Kevin is aware that there are many quality individuals in European basketball, but he is not sure that a few of them can beat the USA team. The NBA basketball player believes that much more width is needed in order to beat the currently strongest team in the world.

"There are players like Wembanyama, Jokić, Dončić, Giannis, if you look only at these players and say that the rest of the world is catching up to us, that's not okay.

You can't use only three players to claim that or because of one game against Serbia. I don't believe they are close to us, and the fact that people are congratulating them on an uncertain match against us says they can't compete."

Kevin Durant share his stances

Kevin pointed out that everything started from the USA, the country where basketball was born. European basketball players followed the NBA as children, hoping one day to appear on the big stage. This is the reason why Durant is strongly against such narratives, feeling that the USA is still leading the way.

"We created basketball and we influenced them. The Americans influenced Dončić, as well as Jokić, as well as Toni Kukoč.

We influenced Manu Ginobili, Parker and all those guys. We have laid the foundations of this game. It's nice that they want to experience history and people want to change the narrative.

The reality is that we dominate them all the time and when they get to 20 points, now they say they've got us. That doesn't make any sense. We set the standard for what it means to play great basketball."