No matter what might be said, or written, or assumed, Kevin Durant has a soft spot for Russell Westbrook.
The new Golden State Warriors forward sat down with the Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater to discuss the state of his relationship with his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate. Durant was honest, sometimes brutally so, and left no doubt that he, in hindsight, doesn’t view Westbrook as some sort of obstacle he needed to shed or overcome.
Here are a couple highlights, the first of which was shortened for length:
Slater: The Rolling Stone article came out recently that characterized you guys as ‘work friends.’ For years, you constantly told us you two were ‘brothers.’ Which is it?
Durant: “We were brothers. We are brothers. When you do a story for Rolling Stone, we talk and then he writes the story how he wants to write it. He came up with that term on his own. That got kind of miscommunicated through the entire thing. Me and Russell grew up together. I was in the phase of finding out who I was outside of basketball. He already knew who he was. He already had a stable life. He had stable parents, a girlfriend through college. I didn’t have none of that stuff. I’m trying to find out who I am, which I didn’t know, which is not a bad thing. He knew who he was. So obviously we’re going to grow toward this way (splits arms). It’s not a bad thing. It’s not at all. We still hung out. We’re boys. My interest went this way, his went that way. He got married, I didn’t. He hung with his wife. What you want me to do? I love Russ. I don’t care what nobody say. I don’t care what he say or what the fans say. Like, this is a tough time right now in our relationship. But I love Russ. I love his family. They all know that. I never did anything morally wrong. I never back-stabbed him in real life, never did anything behind his back, never told anyone anything about his character. Never did any of that. I just left teams. I just switched teams. Everyone on the outside is looking at it as, ‘Oh, you must not have liked him.’ Hell no.
…
Slater: Kendrick Perkins said something recently that on the court wise, he thought you guys didn’t value each other enough.
Durant: “That’s bull****, too. I love Perk. I respect Perk. But that’s his opinion. He wasn’t there the last two years, or the last year-and-a-half. We valued each other. I went out of my way during games, ‘Throw it down there to Russ, get a basket!’ He went out of his way to toss it back to me for dunks. We valued each other. I chose a different path. I chose to go somewhere else and that has nothing to do with Russell or how we were on the court. Nah. I just chose to go a different way.”
This is pretty cool that Durant went out of his way to get all this stuff out, even if it’s also for the benefit of himself. Westbrook has remained mostly mum on the entire situation, while Durant has entertained questions, his answers to which have been twisted and interpreted and dissected to no end.
That doesn’t mean he’s wrong for holding court. Nor does it mean Westbrook is smarter than him. To the contrary, it was smart of Durant to do this after everything that’s happened and been said since July. These words take precedent over anything he has said or will eventually say, unless Westbrook responds otherwise. For now, whenever a report comes out, whenever something unsavory is said, Durant can point to this interview, the one that reads like a borderline apology to Westbrook and catharsis for himself.
What this interview won’t do is tone down the anticipation for Thursday night’s contest between Oklahoma City and Golden State. Westbrook will be out for blood, even if he and Durant are closet brothers, and Durant will be out to prove something to himself and the rest of us—that his decision is beyond question.
That’s good (basketball) TV.
