Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant is having none of the latest criticism thrown at him and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. As he has done in the past, he took to social media to respond to the naysayers taking issue on everything they do.

On Friday, the Suns and Lakers played each other for the NBA In-Season Tournament. During the game, Durant and James were seen laughing at each other and basically showing their friendship. Phoenix's X account (formerly Twitter) shared the photo and captioned it with “Respect.”

A critic, however, showed disgust over the photo and emphasized that athletes should be competing in the court and not laughing with one another. The social media user proceeded to downplay the case of the two as potential GOATs (greatest of all time) and added it's the reason why Michael Jordan is the best ever: because he treated everyone as enemies and was always out for blood whenever he was on the court.

“I hate this ‘we all fiends' laughing during the game s**t!! It's time to go to work, kill these mofos and keep your for on their necks. THIS IS 1 of the reason[s] why MJ23 is the [GOAT] MJ23 simply killed EVERYONE IN SIGHT!” the critic said.

After seeing the comment, Durant fired back and highlighted something that non-athletes don't understand: “At some point, y'all non athletes gon[na] realize that friends compete harder against one another.”

There's certainly no lies on what Durant said. As the Suns superstar shared, even friends go hard at each other just so the other won't get the better of them. They don't have to hate each other and be enemies to get that kind of motivation.

At the end of the day, though, there will always be fans and critics who like old-school basketball better where things are more physical–which many equate to being competitive.

As for Kevin Durant and LeBron James, they don't have many battles left since they are both in the late stages of their respective careers. With that said, it is best for fans to enjoy their match-ups as they look to show