Kevin Durant Admitted He Convinced Himself He Was Beefing With Russell Westbrook

Things have been tense between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for a while now, but perhaps we can credit the NBA All-Star Game for making them better.

The two will play on the same All-Star squad for the second straight season since Durant left Oklahoma City to play for Golden State. That move caused a rift in their friendship, one that’s manifested on and off the court. But things seem different between the two, and when LeBron James picked both Durant and Westbrook for his All-Star team this year, it was barely even a thing.

After the team’s All-Star Game practice on Saturday where Durant and Westbrook appeared downright friendly, Durant was asked about his relationship with his former teammate. The reigning NBA Finals MVP admitted that he’s moved past their rivalry and that a lot of that tension was because he “f*cked that up” and was was in his own head.

“I just got out of my own head and got out of my own way and stopped thinking it was even a thing, you know?” Durant asked rhetorically.

The two have indeed sniped a bit on the court when the Warriors played the Thunder, though Westbrook’s legendary intensity could certainly make you think that he’s mad at, well, everyone on the planet when he plays basketball. But Durant and Westbrook had a very real friendship when they played together, and it fell apart when Durant left him behind in Oklahoma.

“I feel like I f*cked that up,” Durant said before apologizing for the profanity and elaborating.

“I feel like I just made it a thing when I shouldn’t have been,” he continued. “So it’s cool to kind of get past that and appreciate these guys for who they are and what they do. And it’s all love at the end of the day.”

It’s a mature response from Durant about friendship on a weekend where he’s had to answer a lot of different questions about the value of an athlete’s voice in the public discourse. And in a world where Westbrook will be asked questions about their relationship, this kind of amounts to a public apology from Durant.

Later in the press conference, Durant was asked about the best dunk he’s ever seen. He wryly referenced a “6-3 guy” he used to play with a few years ago that had “athleticism off the charts.”

“I used to see him do normal dunks every day and now when I see dunks it’s just not as good as his,” Durant said. “So he’s an athletic guy, I think he plays in OKC. I threw him a lob one game and he was over the top of the backboard. After that one, nobody else can compare.”

Since winning a title and Finals MVP, Durant has come into his own as a person comfortable with his role in the league and the world in general. As time has gone on, he seems more at peace with the decisions he’s made in his career. If that amounts to easing tensions between he and his former close friend, all the rest of us can hope is that Westbrook feels the same way.

He might need a little bit more time.