Russell Westbrook has made himself perfectly clear: Do not ask him about Kevin Durant. He said this after Durant made a remark about his new team’s selflessness, presumably hoping that the narrative-loving NBA media would leave him alone regarding his BFF signing with the Warriors, and he said it again before Durant’s new team beat the heck out of the trash-talkin’ Thunder.
Still, even as his story of brotherly love lost has settled since that game, Westbrook did himself no favors with a memorable pre-game outfit that will certainly be brought up again when the Thunder head to Oakland on Jan. 18, and especially when Durant returns to the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City on Feb. 11 and Mar. 20.
Westbrook’s good buddy Derrick Rose never needed the Thunder star to tell him not to ask about Durant, though. Sure, Rose was preoccupied with his own offseason drama, but when he worked out with Westbrook in Los Angeles and Las Vegas this past summer, the new Knicks guard knew better than to pry.
“I didn’t want to ask him about it,’’ Rose said sheepishly. “I think my friends probably asked him what was going on and I wasn’t around to hear it. I didn’t want to ask him about it. He normally gives me my space when I have things going on. He doesn’t ask me about it. I give him his space with everything going about him in the summer.’’ (Via the New York Post)
The 8-8 Knicks host the 10-8 Thunder on Monday night, and while Rose admits that he’s still getting his legs back, he says that playing against the great guards, including Westbrook, helps rebuild his confidence and make him better. That’s good news for Knicks fans, because taking on Mr. Triple-Double should inspire more fear than anything else right now.
