Former Oklahoma City Thunder and current Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant was asked to list the top five teammates he has ever played with when he appeared on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast.
As he answered, he initially forgot about one of the obvious answers — Russell Westbrook.
Durant started with Kyrie Irving. No surprise there. Irving is a star and Durant chose to join the Nets in tandem with him.
James Harden, he continued. Another teammate and a former Most Valuable Player who is back in the MVP conversation this year.
Steph Curry. Of course. He’s just a point guard who revolutionized the game.
Klay Thompson. A bit less obvious than the other three, but one of the best shooters to ever play and a very, very good defender.
And then Durant paused to think.
“I’m gonna go … I’m gonna go with Serge Ibaka.”
Immediately, the two hosts of the show were taken aback. “I thought somebody else.”
“I forgot somebody?” Durant asked.
The reminded him of Westbrook.
“Oh, (expletives), I am tripping. Russ, yeah,” Durant said. “I did forget about Russ. Russ would definitely be in the top five.”
Durant removed Ibaka from the list and put Westbrook above Thompson.
“I’m glad you called me out on that,” he said.
Shots fired? KD leaves Russell Westbrook out of his top 5 players he ever played with! đł pic.twitter.com/quwHLo4QUO
— A-M-P â (@AMP_16Digital) April 18, 2021
So, to be clear: Yes, Durant initially left off Westbrook, but no, this is not some underlying beef between the two of them. Purposefully leaving him out and thinking that the hosts wouldn’t ask him about that decision would be delusional. That would be a tough sell and a weird backtrack.
You can put your pitchforks down.