Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are with two of the favorite teams to win the NBA championship this season. Durant and the Brooklyn Nets will be hoping to right the wrongs of last season and win the title, whereas Westbrook has joined the Lakers to form a big three with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
KD and Westbrook have shared quite a strange relationship over the last few years. The duo entered the league just 1 year apart and became the core duo for the Oklahoma City Thunder. In 2012, KD and Westbrook, alongside a young James Harden, helped OKC reach the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.
The OKC were outmatched by the Heat, a series that boiled down to experience in the end, and the Thunder lost 4-1. Harden would leave in 2012, leaving Durant and Westbrook to lead the Thunder to a championship.
Over the next few years, the duo began to dominate the NBA, with Durant winning MVP in 2014. In 2016, Westbrook and Durant led the Thunder to the Western Conference Finals against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, who were also defending champions at the time.
Many fans see Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals as the turning point of the series. While that game is remembered for Klay Thompson’s historic performance, where scored a record-setting 11 three-pointers in a single playoff game, it wasn’t the only factor in the Warriors winning.
What fans may not remember is how poor KD and Russ were, especially down the stretch. As compiled and pointed out by Reddit user u/BearsNecessity, during the last 3 minutes of Game 6, Durant and Westbrook had more than 6 turnovers, which allowed the Warriors to take the lead, win the game, and push the series to 7 games.
KD and Russ helped OKC get a 3-1 lead over Golden State Warriors, meaning they were 1 win away from the NBA Finals. But over the next 3 games, the Thunder collapsed, and lost 3 straight games, and got knocked out of the Western Conference Finals.
In the offseason, Durant would shock the NBA and join the Warriors, just months after losing to them. Thus began the tension between Westbrook and Durant. Both players had a great deal of animosity against each other, something that has only subsided over the last year or two.
