Written by Matt Moore at CBSSports.com
It’s Westbrook vs. Durant week in the NBA. The Thunder travel to Oakland to take on the Warriors on Thursday in the first game Kevin Durant has ever played vs. Russell Westbrook and the Thunder.
The two are going to be asked about their relationship, it’s just part of it, and it is unavoidable. You can take two approaches. Westbrook has made it clear he doesn’t want to answer any more questions on the subject, while Durant did two sit-down interviews this week, both published Tuesday, to discuss his decision to leave OKC and make it clear he has no “beef” with Westbrook.
First, Durant talked to the San Jose Mercury News about his decision to leave, saying he “loves” Westbrook. Durant said the two are “brothers” still, even though he admits they haven’t spoken since Durant left him in free agency with nothing but a text message. Durant describes the decision as more about him trying to figure out who he is as an adult, and admits the two grew apart off-court.
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. C’mon man. Nobody understand that part. I’m trying to find out who I am. He knew who he was. He knew what he wanted to do. He got married young. He met his girlfriend in college. I didn’t have none of that. I didn’t have two parents in a home with me. I’m still trying to search and find out who I am. We end up going this way (splits arms again) as far as off-the-court personality wise. And that’s not a bad thing.”
This is a pretty insightful comment, and Durant deserves credit from everyone outside of OKC — who have a right to remain hurt — for being this vulnerable publicly. He comes across in the piece as adamant that there’s no “beef” between the two, just as he did with a similar interview with USA Today:
Q: Does it bother you that — no matter how it got messy — that everything you two accomplished together falls by the wayside and now the focus is that it’s a little beef?
A: “It just shows the way of the world right now. Like, a beef? Bro, I don’t beef with nobody. I’ve seen beefs go the wrong way. We’ve all seen it. The wrong way – real life wrong way, so you can’t say beef around me. I’m not into no basketball beef. Where me or Russ comes from (Seat Pleasant, Md. and Los Angeles, respectively), beef – you don’t just throw that word around like that. We have a miscommunication going on between a lot of people, a lot of assumptions – you can say that. But a beef? Nah, there ain’t no beef man.
That’s great perspective, for Durant to make it clear that “beef” means a hatred that he’ll never have. However, there is clearly a conflict between the two, and that’s not a one-way street. Just because Durant is fine with Westbrook doesn’t mean that Westbrook is fine with Durant. The way Durant left clearly bothered him, and Durant joining the Warriors clearly bothered him.
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