OKLAHOMA CITY — Russell Westbrook knew the questions were coming.
They centered around Kevin Durant, about their relationship; about what their relationship used to be and how it could change in the future; about whether it could ever get back to where it was or if this was it; about how different that is for him; about why to all of the above. They came from every angle, with TV cameras glaring in his face and unfamiliar reporters pestering him. They didn’t seem to stop.
Yes, he thinks it’s dumb.
“It’s over with,” Westbrook said afterward. “He plays for his team. I play for my team. That’s it.”
Behind me at Thunder shootaround on Saturday morning, a few radio hosts were idealists. Cheer Durant when he’s introduced in the starting lineup, they had all said on air this week, for everything he did for this city. For “closure.” Then boo the hell out of him the rest of the game.
“I don’t think it’s going to be like that,” one of them admitted.
It was not like that:
Kevin Durant was booed from start to finish. He was booed when he stepped onto the court for warmups, when he ran onto it with his teammates an hour later, when he was introduced over the PA, when he touched the ball for the first time.
He was yelled at, and fans chanted “CUPCAKE” at him during play and in the middle of timeouts. He was cheered once — during warmups, when he air-balled his second shot. If there was any benevolence intended for Durant in Oklahoma City on Saturday, it didn’t show itself.
“Sports fans are emotional. They should be,” Steve Kerr said after the game. “They cared about KD.”
That’s putting it lightly. Durant was a figurehead representing Oklahoma across the nation, even globally, for a state that is so often an afterthought. He was the first professional superstar for the state’s first professional franchise.
Of course Durant had a right to leave — to make a lifestyle choice, to decide what is best for his life. In the same vein, of course Oklahoma City fans have a right to be upset about it. Ask the many fans with signs, or the one who ordered “KowarD” T-shirts in July, or any of the other thousands who booed on Saturday.
The actual game wasn’t close — a 130-114 final, with Golden State leading virtually the whole way. More than anything, the game felt like a facade for Oklahomans to vent frustrations, and for two players who used to describe each other as brothers to accept that they weren’t anymore.
At Saturday’s shootaround, Westbrook gave his most in-depth answer yet about the fractured relationship:
“I mean, I’m fine. Honestly,” Westbrook said. “Things happen in life, man. As a man, you’ve got to move forward. I have a great group of guys here that I love like my brothers. There’s been many a teammate that I had here before that left me, and they’re my brothers — that I still talk to do and that I don’t talk to. It’s not just Kevin. There’s many guys that come in and out of Oklahoma City that I (have) a relationship that maybe you guys don’t know about. Obviously with me and Kevin, it’s a bigger stage. It happens.”
Clearly, Westbrook and Durant aren’t totally over it themselves. They got into a jawing match late in the third quarter, after all — Westbrook reportedly yelling, “I’m coming,” with Durant responding, “You’re losing.”
That’s not going to make this story fade away. Westbrook has certainly done his fair share of stoking the flames in the past six months. But he’s also a victim of us assuming everything he does is about Durant, when sometimes it turns out to be totally innocuous. Westbrook has always resisted letting his life become just another story for all of us. This is more of the same.
In that way, he’s still the same as his new adversary.
“You wanted him to do what you wanted him to do. But is it your life? Do you have to live it?” said Durant on the Bill Simmons Podcast earlier this week, referring to LeBron James’ decision to go to Miami but essentially defending his own.
Maybe one day Durant will return to Oklahoma City and receive acceptance and acknowledge for what he did for the franchise. Maybe he’ll get a tribute video on the Jumbotron. Maybe Westbrook will still be on the team then, and they’ll hug at half-court. Maybe that’s the final chapter, even if Saturday’s was the climatic one.
Something Stephen Curry said after the game resonated well with the situation Westbrook and Durant find themselves in, and the way we see them.
“This is sports,” Curry said. “It’s not serious. At all. Try to play basketball, win games. Every fan base wants to have something to be proud about, to support, to cheer for.”
Or if you want, someone to boo.