Pretty much every basketball fan was livid when Kevin Durant decided to turn his back on Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder several years back. Most folks felt like Durant was betraying his friend when he opted to sign with the Golden State Warriors instead of staying in OKC.
At the end of the day, KD's motivation was fueled by his desire to win. He did just that with the Warriors too, winning two titles alongside Stephen Curry and Co. Durant felt like this was something he could not achieve with Westbrook and the Thunder.
Former OKC big man Kendrick Perkins has now spoken out about what went on behind the scenes with the Thunder. According to the ESPN broadcaster, one of the main reasons behind the team's lack of success was rooted in the relationship between Durant and Westbrook. Apparently, they were never really on the same wavelength:
“Their continuity wasn't there,” Perkins said on a recent appearance on JJ Redick's The Old Man & the Three podcast (h/t Lee Tran of Fadeaway World). “No matter how much they tried to fake it to the public, their brotherhood, it never was a brotherhood. And that's okay, right, because you don't have to be somebody's brother to go out there and win a championship. But it helps. They never just got on the same page.
“It was the most difficult situation that I've ever been in coming from a Celtics team that was so close. When I got to the Oklahoma City Thunder, it was so separated. You had Eric Maynor, Russell Westbrook and James Harden… and Daequan Cook. They had their little clique and they kicked it with each other. Then you had KD who as just by himself. He didn't even hang with them.”
Right now, Westbrook and Durant have trekked their respective paths in the NBA. Russ is with the Los Angeles Lakers where he is still trying to prove himself worthy of dawning the purple and gold jersey. Durant, on the other hand, is at a bit of an impasse with his current team, the Brooklyn Nets, where his future has been put into question amid all the drama surrounding his buddy Kyrie Irving.
A lot of us want to imagine what would have happened if this pair stayed together with the Thunder and how many titles they could have possibly won together. Well, based on Perkins' truth bomb here, it sounds like these two were destined to part ways sooner or later.
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