Kevin Durant had some not-so nice things to say about his former team and coach earlier this week. He didn’t mean to say them with his verified Twitter account, mind you, but the monkey’s out of the barrel here and now we all have to deal with the fallout from it.
Much of that fallout has, so far, come from the Oklahoma City Thunder and its players. Enes Kanter was critical of Durant’s words and he drew praise from a young Thunder fan for it. But now it’s general manger Sam Presi’s turn to respond to Durant’s claim that the team wasn’t much beyond Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Presti spoke with reporters on Friday and didn’t have much of a reaction to Durant’s words, other than that he’s said his piece about the former Thunder superstar in the past.
Sam Presti addresses Kevin Durant’s recent tweets, as well as Russell Westbrook’s unsigned extension: pic.twitter.com/qroSU1sLB1
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) September 22, 2017
“I and no one from the Thunder has anything negative to say about Kevin Durant,” Presti said.
“I think we’ve been hopefully very open about the fact that we have a tremendous amount of appreciation and respect for what he and his teammates and his coaches and everyone during his tenure here have accomplished. I don’t think there’s anything to say other than that.
Presti said Durant had not reached out to him personally, and didn’t know if anyone from the Thunder had heard an apology from the Warriors star.
“I’m not asking people that question,” Presti said. “Maybe he has, but I can’t tell that he has.”
Presti was also asked about a contract extension for Russell Westbrook, which is on the table currently but might not be something the point guard and reigning NBA MVP wants to sign.
“We’re gonna let that play itself out,” Presti said. “He has and we have until the 16th of October to be permitted to sign that. We’re gonna have that offer on the table as long as it’s permitted to be there.”
It may be in Westbrook’s best interest to wait until after this season to sign said extension, but it will be one more question Presti and Westbrook have to answer all season long if he does not ink the deal before next month’s deadline.
