Kevin Durant hasn't been doing one-on-one interviews lately, but he agreed to sit down with Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman because the subject was Russell Westbrook, not himself. Durant, who was introduced by Westbrook when inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame on Thursday, spoke at length about his relationship with his Oklahoma City Thunder co-star.
An excerpt:
Is there a moment, story, on-court or off-court, that you think back on and it really strengthened your friendship?
Yeah, I remember when I had some problems with my family, (Kendrick Perkins) and him were the guys I’d call and just vent to and talk to. I say this because me and my family are great now. We’re in a good spot. But there’s times where this life is real. We make a lot of money to take care of our family, but that doesn’t mask all our problems. It may mask some, but it doesn’t take them away. I was having problems with my family and I needed someone I could relate to and Russell and Perk were there. They were guys I leaned on. They told me to just keep my head up, words of encouragement. Me and Russ had talked about that stuff, but it wasn’t as in depth. Then when I was vulnerable to him, it was like, yeah, this is someone I can lean on. It showed me a different side of him. Since then, we’ve been really tight. There’s times where we go at it. There’s times I don’t like what he’s doing out on the court, there’s times where he hates what I’m doing out on the court. There’s times where it’s Russ, you gotta control your attitude or KD, you gotta stop, you gotta speak up, whatever. There’s times we cuss each other out, but that’s a part of being brothers. Because I know if I need something, he’ll be there and if I need to talk to someone outside of basketball, he’ll be there. It’s a real brotherhood type relationship. We're like family.
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Sounds like you guys can weather most of the criticism, the issues with shot selection or criticism about your game, but is the one that maybe irks you the most when people say that you don’t like each other? Because that’s not an opinion on a shot, it’s literally someone saying you are not friends with your friend.
How can you tell? That’s my whole question. What are you basing that off of? Because he shoots more than I do one game? That don’t make no sense. We don’t like each other because he shot more? That don’t make no sense. And it’s really disrespectful to me or to us because you think I’m that selfish of a person. I don’t like this guy because he shoots more than me? That’s disrespectful to me. Because if I’m a friend, I’m genuine. I’m there. No matter what. Good days, bad days, more shots. I’m a real friend. If I like somebody, I like them. I may not agree with everything they do on the court. That’s a part of it. But don’t say we both changing as men when your questions are changing. Don’t come to me and ask what’s going on with Russell and expect me to be alright with it.
Durant repeated that they like and respect each other because they have the same goal and the same work ethic. He said that, when he was hurt, it helped to see how well Westbrook was playing following an injury. He called Westbrook "genuine," and said it wasn't fair to judge him on how he came off in postgame interviews. You should read the whole thing.
It's clear that Durant wanted to clear up any misconceptions about him and Westbrook. Despite neither one of them ever saying anything remotely negative about the other, there has been a lot of speculation about their relationship. This is their eighth year as teammates, and in that time they've become superstars and experienced all sorts of highs and lows in the NBA. More important, though, is that they've grown up together. You can understand why Durant gets defensive on the matter, as it sounds like their bond really does extend beyond the court.
