Kevin Durant Is Done Trying To Convince Thunder Fans He Loved Playing In Oklahoma City

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The Golden State Warriors are once again in Oklahoma City for a Wednesday night matchup with Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, and the Thunder. Despite the fact that we’re more than a year removed from Durant’s OKC exit, it doesn’t really feel like any of the tension between Durant, Westbrook, and the Thunder has gone away.

In a lot of ways, Durant did this to himself. Just when you thought that maybe the basketball world was going to move on to the Kyrie Irving vs. LeBron James beef, Durant fired off a bunch of tweets from what he claims was not a burner Twitter account trashing Westbrook and the Thunder. It’s hard to heal a wound if you keep picking at the scab, and that’s exactly what Durant did this summer.

Now, in fairness to Durant, he owned up to those tweets. He said it was dumb. He said it kept him up at night. He was remorseful. Durant’s words mean nothing to Thunder fans – we know that already – but Durant did say them, and it seemed genuine.

Just hours before tipoff on Wednesday, Durant opened that wound again. At shootaround before Warriors vs. Thunder, Durant explained why he’s “done” trying to convince Thunder fans he loved his time in Oklahoma City. While Durant’s comments weren’t really negative, they do carry some hypocrisy Thunder fans will be quick to point out.

“At this point, I’m done trying to convince people I loved being here, I loved playing basketball here, I loved growing as a basketball player and as a person, they’re just not listening right now, so it’s about time for me to go ahead and stop talking about that type of stuff.”

I’m going to take Durant’s comments at face value here because that’s what makes the most sense. Durant spent eight years of his life in Oklahoma City, and it’s kind of silly to think he didn’t enjoy most of those eight years. It certainly looked like he was having a good time.

Of course, that perspective would likely change if you’re a Thunder fan because Durant can say he loves Oklahoma City all he wants, but he still left. That’s a hard pill to swallow.

If Durant really wants the tension to go away, he should probably take his own advice and stop talking about it. That includes talking about how you’re not talking about it anymore.

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