Then I realized that Giannis, with five fewer seasons, has already surpassed Kevin Durant as an all-time great.
That is not to slander Kevin Durant either; I believe he will retire a top-10 player of all time and is one of the greatest scorers basketball has ever seen- this is more to give credit to the unprecedented dominance of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It just so happens that when I was looking for someone to contextualize Giannis' all-time ranking with among current players, Kevin Durant is the only person that qualifies. We can't do LeBron. He's surpassed his peers so much that he's done the seemingly impossible by entering the Jordan GOAT conversation as 1A or 1B. Giannis has completed eight seasons- LeBron once went to the finals for eight straight seasons . . . yeah. So if not LeBron, the next best thing is Kevin Durant, and you'll quickly see that Giannis has already passed him.
Trying to explain how Giannis' dominance is almost impossible, but not one to shy away from the difficult, I'll do my best.
If the season were to end today, Giannis would have two of the top-3 PER seasons in NBA history.
In addition, he would have three seasons that rank in the top 30. The only other players that can say that are LeBron James (4), Michael Jordan (4), Shaq (3), and Wilt Chamberlain (3). That's pretty good company. For context, Kevin Durant's best PER season came in 2013-14, which ranks 33rd all time.
And if we say Kevin Durant is one of the greatest scorers of all time, what do we say about Giannis, whose career scoring efficiency rating of 55.8 is better than Durant's 54.6?