LOS ANGELES – His bad.

Kevin Durant had just given LeBron James flowers heading into their first regular season matchup since Christmas 2018 as the Phoenix Suns play Thursday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“LeBron is an all-time great player and solidified himself as top two players all-time,” Durant said after Thursday’s morning shootaround at Crypto.com Arena.

Michael Jordan has to be the other guy, right? Just saying.

Durant isn’t trying to make too much of a big deal about his matchup against James even though he understands the hype around it. He just faced him in their final preseason game last week in Palm Springs, but this is the regular season.

Plus, the history between these two makes it must-see national television..

TNT is televising the game.

“Grateful for this moment tonight,” Durant said. “I know everybody is going to be tuned in watching.”

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Durant said James being a huge draw makes any matchup he has more meaningful and marvels at the NBA’s all-time leading scorer still creating fan hysteria “at age 40” years old.

“Every time he steps on the court, no matter who it’s against, especially at age 40, it’s going to be talked about,” Durant said. “When you go down and play the Clippers and Kawhi (Leonard) or play Victor Wembanyama for the first time, I just think LeBron is such a big draw, that every game is important to him.”

The TNT’s Jared Greenberg said to Durant, “You know he’s not 40 yet, right?”

James will turn 39 in December.

“Sorry Bron,” said a smiling Durant, who just turned 35 last month to match his jersey number.

Yep.

His bad.