Tonight the Golden State Warriors will host the Oklahoma City Thunder. It will also be the first time Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook will be opponents since Durant left OKC in free agency. There’s been a lot of reports about what happened between them and everything has been kicked up a notch with their first game against each other. In an exclusive interview with Mercury News, Durant opened up about his relationship with Westbrook. According to KD, he and Westbrook have different backgrounds, and while Westbrook knows who he is, had two parents growing up, and a girlfriend now wife, Durant didn’t have any of those things and is still trying to find himself.
The Rolling Stone article came out recently that characterized you guys as ‘work friends.’ For years, you constantly told us you two were ‘brothers.’ Which is it?
Durant: “We were brothers. We are brothers. When you do a story for Rolling Stone, we talk and then he writes the story how he wants to write it. He came up with that term on his own. That got kind of miscommunicated through the entire thing. Me and Russell grew up together. I was in the phase of finding out who I was outside of basketball. He already knew who he was. He already had a stable life. He had stable parents, a girlfriend through college. I didn’t have none of that stuff. I’m trying to find out who I am, which I didn’t know, which is not a bad thing. He knew who he was. So obviously we’re going to grow toward this way (splits arms). It’s not a bad thing. It’s not at all. We still hung out. We’re boys. My interest went this way, his went that way. He got married, I didn’t. He hung with his wife. What you want me to do? I love Russ. I don’t care what nobody say. I don’t care what he say or what the fans say. Like, this is a tough time right now in our relationship. But I love Russ. I love his family. They all know that. I never did anything morally wrong. I never back-stabbed him in real life, never did anything behind his back, never told anyone anything about his character. Never did any of that. I just left teams. I just switched teams. Everyone on the outside is looking at it as, ‘Oh, you must not have liked him.’ Hell no. C’mon man. Nobody understand that part. I’m trying to find out who I am. He knew who he was. He knew what he wanted to do. He got married young. He met his girlfriend in college. I didn’t have none of that. I didn’t have two parents in a home with me. I’m still trying to search and find out who I am. We end up going this way (splits arms again) as far as off-the-court personality wise. And that’s not a bad thing.”
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