Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have long believed to have been in some sort of feud after KD bolted Oklahoma City in the summer of 2016 to join the Golden State Warriors.
The two have maintained that any “beef” between them is overblown, but, when Durant was recently asked about his top-five teammates he’s ever played with, it was curious that he did not mention Westbrook — at least not initially.
The Brooklyn Nets star, appearing on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, told rapper/actor Gillie Da Kid and co-host Wallo267 that his top five teammates were Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and, after a long pause of consideration, Serge Ibaka.
Wait, what?
“I thought somebody else,” Wallo said.
“I forgot somebody?” Durant asked.
“Yeah,” Wallo said. “To me, I thought you were gonna say — I ain’t even going…”
“Who?” Durant, still completely unaware of the glaring omission, asked.
“South Central LA. Russell,” Wallo said.
“Oh, s**t,” Durant said. “Damn, I am tripping. Russ, yeah I’m trippin’….Yeah, I did forget about Russ. Russ would definitely be top five.”
Gillie Da Kid told Durant if there was some underlying beef they would have called Westbrook up at that moment.
“I’m glad you called me out on that,” Durant said. “As a matter of fact, I will put Russ fourth and Klay fifth.”
Durant and Westbrook played eight seasons together in Oklahoma City, reaching an NBA Finals once but were never able to win a championship.
Durant’s decision to join a Warriors team that already won a championship and had Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green shocked many and was not well received by many fans as they saw him jumping to ride the coattails to a championship.
Westbrook infamously posted an Instagram photo of cupcakes following the news, which came around the Fourth of July, but many realized the photo was the former Thunder star taking a shot at Durant after it was learned that former teammate Kendrick Perkins reportedly called “soft” teammates “cupcake.”
As recently as 2018, Durant said he and Westbrook were speaking to one another again and the two have downplayed any feud the media seems to bring up.
Durant genuinely seemed to have had a brain lapse in this particular interview and just flat out forgot about Westbrook in the moment.
There is probably nothing further to read into it, but boy, that would have certainly a caused a stir if he legitimately felt that Serge Ibaka ranked higher than Russell Westbrook among the teammates he’s had over his career.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram