Russell Westbrook still isn’t ready to talk about Kevin Durant.
A fan ran into Westbrook in LA and decided to Vine the encounter. He also boldly decided to ask what everyone else in the NBA community probably wants to know about the flamboyant point guard:
“How you feel about Durant, man?”
Russell Westbrook immediately let out a dismissive laughed and turned away as the fan smiled knowingly back into his camera. It didn’t sound like genuine laughter, and it definitely didn’t sound like Westbrook wanted anything to do with the topic of Durant in that moment. The Durant-Westbrook relationship was highly scrutinized during their years as teammates, and the attention hasn’t waned despite Durant choosing the Warriors in the most shocking free agency defection in recent memory.
From the looks of it, extracting an honest answer from Westbrook about the move might be impossible. This video surfaced just days after ESPN writer Royce Young, a reporter with in depth knowledge of the Thunder, was forced to clarify some comments he made on the TrueHoopTV podcast about Durant informing Westbrook over dinner some three weeks ago that he would be returning to the Thunder.
Young’s exact words: “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.”
Per Durant himself, no such words about returning were said to anyone in the Thunder organization. The internet reaction to Young’s story forced him to clarify his comments, which he explained as mere characterizations:
“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.”