Before signing with the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant was thought to be staying with the Oklahoma City Thunder for at least one more season. Apparently, not only was that the general sentiment, but it was also something he told former teammate Russell Westbrook.
ESPN’s Royce Young conveyed this information on ESPN Radio.
“Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant’s sitting there at dinner, telling him ‘Hey, I’m coming back, man. Don’t worry about it.’ And now, Russell Westbrook has been kind of thrown into this in having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected.
“Kevin Durant, more so than even that, was telling people, ‘Hey, yeah, I mean I’m coming back.’ Like I said in there, a week before Kevin Durant sat down in the Hamptons, he was in Oklahoma City ready to make an offer on a multi-million-dollar house. So, the guy was pretty serious about coming back, and then things turned rather quickly for him to leave. And there’s no doubt that the organization felt a little bit burned by this.”
Well, no wonder Westbrook if feeling betrayed right now. Young reported the point guard as being “angry and hurt” by Durant’s decision, and because he never received a phone call about it.
Before Durant jumped ship, he and Westbrook were two peas in a pod. They had been teammates since 2008 when Westbrook came into the NBA and went deep into the playoffs multiple times together, reaching the NBA Finals in 2012.
In the end, perhaps Durant got tired of playing with Westbrook, who is more of a scoring guard than someone who looks to distribute, especially in crunch time. This was evident for all to see during the final games of the Western Conference Finals, when Westbrook botched things under pressure playing hero ball rather than trusting his teammates.
Despite this, Durant really shouldn’t have left his old teammate hanging, if the report of him not calling Westbrook is true.