Kevin Durant is still the man who gave the best NBA MVP acceptance speech in history (see below). It’s hard to remember — now that he’s been cast as a supervillain in some ways — how emotional and raw it was, how even his Thunder teammates grew teary-eyed listening. Durant gave basketball fans another taste of his warmth and his honesty talking to The Mercury News this week before the first OKC-Golden State match-up of the season.
Durant tells interviewer Anthony Slater that the Rolling Stone article didn’t quite portray his relationship with his ex-teammate Russell Westbrook accurately. They’re still “brothers,” Durant says, no matter what anybody thinks — including Westbrook himself. If you want to see inside Kevin Durant’s mind, you can — because just like when he gave that MVP speech, he opens himself up for the fans. And Durant has a pretty strong notion that what he did in leaving OKC and Westbrook isn’t a high-grade offense. Here’s the relevant quote describing him and Westbrook:
“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.”
