Kevin Durant returning to Oklahoma City for the first time is a juicy matchup between the best team in the league and the team Durant first called his own. It’s a highly-anticipated showdown NBA fans have waited for all season.
It’s also a chance to look back on one of the NBA’s most stunning interpersonal tragedies in recent memory—the shattered friendship of Durant and Russell Westbrook. The two dominated together for eight years in OKC, and formed a strong friendship that was broken when Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors last summer. Saturday night marks Durant’s first game back in Oklahoma City since the dramatic split, and this fan-made video rolls back the clock on some of Durant and Westbrook’s best moments together.
https://twitter.com/LeBlew3v1Lead/status/829566266503409664
The video includes some buzzer-beaters, Westbrook’s MVP performances in the NBA All-Star Game, and the two just goofing off while cameras are around. Westbrook stands behind Durant getting interviewed and playfully mocks his answers. Durant defends Westbrook as a superstar to the press. It also has a portion of Durant’s famous NBA MVP speech from 2014 in which Durant gives Russ an emotional thank you for helping him win it.
Here’s the full text of that, in case you forgot that this world is ruled by entropy and nothing you hold dear can withstand erosion from the blowing sands of time.
I know you guys think I forgot Russ. But I could speak all night about Russell. An emotional guy who will run through a wall for me. I don’t take it for granted. There’s days when I just want to tackle you and tell you to snap out of it sometimes, but I know there’s days when you want to do the same thing with me. I love you, man. I love you. A lot of people put unfair criticism on you as a player and I’m the first to have your back, man, though it all. Just stay the person you are. Everybody loves you here. I love you. I thank you so much, man. You make me better. You know, your work ethic, I always want to compete with you. I always want to pull up in the parking lot of the arena, or the practice facility, and if you beat me there I was always upset. I always wanted to outwork you. You set the bar. You set the tone. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. You have a big piece of this. You’re an MVP-caliber player. It’s a blessing to play with you, man.
Durant and Westbrook can say their friendship ending is no big deal all they want. But that speech by Durant is revered because of its honesty. These two genuinely liked one another, both on the court and off. It’s sad to think that’s gone now, even if it makes some Western Conference games more intriguing and has turned Russ into a triple-double machine.
Time changes people, and friends can drift apart. Relationships begin and end and this world is full of chaos. You can’t throw a bunch of building materials into a tornado and expect a new house when the storm dissipates. But despite their differences in the present, let’s hope Durant and Westbrook both feel some fondness for what they once had. It was good. It meant something, and it was far more than just a plot line for a basketball game on a Saturday night.
