The three best NBA players of this era have been LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. Each has his individual strengths and weaknesses, and fans can argue which of the three has had the best career, or which of the three is the best player to build a championship team around.

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Back in the day, Tracy McGrady was a pretty good star player in his own right. He was recently asked whether he would pick James, Curry or Durant to start a franchise with, and to him, it wasn’t really a question to begin with.

He said he would go with James because of his all-around game.

“Bron, I mean that’s an obvious choice, LeBron… When he (Curry) faced LeBron, LeBron has always been the best player in the series,” said McGrady. “KD has been the better scorer, but you cannot take anybody over LeBron James in today’s game. He does too much.

“Now, you might have to change your game because he dominates the ball, but it works for his teams. You’re going to win or at least get there and play for it. I’m going with Bron all day and I love KD, I love Steph. But Bron brings too much and does so much.”

Curry is the greatest outside shooter in basketball history, and Durant is just a very smooth overall scorer and one of the best scorers the game has ever seen. However, James can not only put up roughly the same number of points, but he’s also a de facto point guard and a good rebounder. He also brings a sense of leadership and control to the basketball court that is invaluable.

Head to head, Curry defeated James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in three out of four NBA Finals matchups. However, in the first one, fellow star Kyrie Irving injured his knee, and in the final one, the Cavs had no shot versus Curry, Durant and the Golden State Warriors.

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James did get the best of Durant in the 2012 championship series when the latter was a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and in 2016, his team overcame a 3-1 series deficit in the finals to knock off a Warriors team that had won a record 73 games in the regular season.

All three have shown tremendous longevity and continue to play at an elite level. Unfortunately, none of them currently play on teams that have a real shot at competing for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.