Kevin Durant sent shockwaves through the sports world when he announced his decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors on Independence Day. Apparently, fans weren't the only ones who were shocked, Durant's teammate Russell Westbrook had no idea either.
According to Royce Young on ESPN's TrueHoop podcast, Westbrook was under the impression Durant would return to play with the Thunder following a conversation they had over dinner before KD's free agency meetings.
"Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant's sitting there at dinner, telling him 'Hey, I'm coming back, man. Don't worry about it.' And now, Russell Westbrook has been kind of thrown into this in having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected."
He added, "Kevin Durant, more so than even that, was telling people, "Hey, yeah, I mean I'm coming back." Like I said in there, a week before Kevin Durant sat down in the Hamptons, he was in Oklahoma City ready to make an offer on a multi-million-dollar house. So, the guy was pretty serious about coming back, and then things turned rather quickly for him to leave. And there's no doubt that the organization felt a little bit burned by this."
On Tuesday, Young wrote on this on ESPN: "Those close to Westbrook say he’s both angry and hurt not only by Durant’s decision to leave but also because Durant didn’t even call to tell him personally. Westbrook wasn’t prepared to be in this position — three weeks ago, like everyone else, he thought Durant was coming back. And he had to learn the hard way he wasn’t."
Durant himself acknowledged that his relationship with Westbrook may never be the same again. Whichever way things between them really went down, Westbrook now has other things to worry about. His free agency is essentially moved up a year. Though he's set to be an unrestricted free agent next summer, the Thunder are reportedly trying to get him to sign a contract extension now. They don't want him to walk away with them getting nothing in return like what happened with Durant. There have been reports that Westbrook does not want to sign an extension and the Thunder will consider trade offers if that's true. The big decision now lies on Westbrook.
Source: bleacherreport.com
