Over the last 48 hours or so, there has been a lot of chatter about Kevin Durant specifically indicating to Russell Westbrook that he planned to re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder. But that apparently never happened.
Royce Young of ESPN.com shed some clarity on the situation:
There has been a lot of conversation about Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder. As I wrote in this story and again in this story: Durant met with Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and Nick Collison in Los Angeles before he met with teams. The impression that Westbrook and Collison — and many around Durant — had was that the coveted free agent would return to the Thunder.
In a TrueHoop podcast on Tuesday, I misspoke in saying that Durant specifically told Westbrook he was coming back.
On the podcast I said, “Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant’s sitting there at dinner, telling [Westbrook], ‘Hey I’m coming back, man. Don’t worry about it.’ And now Russell Westbrook’s kinda been thrown into this in having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected.”
These were not direct quotes meant to be attributed to Durant. It was an attempt to characterize what Westbrook thought his situation was going to be in Oklahoma City and how Durant’s leaving impacts his thinking about his future.
This, essentially, means that Westbrook was in the same boat as just about everyone else, until the days leading up to Durant’s decision to join the Golden State Warriors: He didn’t think the 2013-14 MVP was actually going anywhere, not until after next season at least.
As Young noted, though, Westbrook, along with Nick Collison, did have dinner with Durant prior to free agency. If they even thought he was returning to Oklahoma City, it was surely because of something he said. So while Young may have misspoke after the fact, he in all likelihood wasn’t actually wrong.
Nevertheless, if Durant was going to leave, now was the time for the Thunder. They didn’t want to lose him, of course. But at least now they can figure out the deal with Westbrook, whether he’s leaning toward leaving or staying. And if he won’t commit to them long term, they’ll have the ability to trade him, capitalizing on his departure in a way they never did with Durant.
