Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook (Photo : Getty Images)
Has Kevin Durant gone bad? Once a picture of a model NBA player, he has now been pictured as the league's villain because of his free agency decision. But did he also lie to his friend and teammate, Russell Westbrook?
According to a report from ESPN writer Royce Young who covers the OKC Thunder, Durant had informed Westbrook that he intends to stay in Oklahoma in a story he narrated at the True Hoop podcast (h/t Dan Feldman of NBC for the transcript).
"Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant's sitting there at dinner, telling him 'Hey, I'm coming back, man. Don't worry about it.' And now, Russell Westbrook has been kind of thrown into this in having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected," Young was quoted.
He continued: "Kevin Durant, more so than even that, was telling people, 'Hey, yeah, I mean I'm coming back.' Like I said in there, a week before Kevin Durant sat down in the Hamptons, he was in Oklahoma City ready to make an offer on a multi-million-dollar house. So, the guy was pretty serious about coming back, and then things turned rather quickly for him to leave. And there's no doubt that the organization felt a little bit burned by this."
If this holds true, that means Durant, short of actually lying to Westbrook, led him on. While this is not so crucial (Westbrook is not a free agent and there is really nothing he could do) it seems out of character for Durant. If he was unsure of staying, perhaps the best thing to do was to tell Westbrook (or whoever else)the truth.
Could Durant have been totally swayed by the Golden State Warriors' pitch, or did he have misgivings about staying all along?
Eventually, Young recanted on his statements on ESPN. He clarified that Westbrook and Nick Collison, the Thunder veterans whom Durant met with in Los Angeles before the Hampton meetings with the various teams, "had the impression" that Durant would stay.
Young's statements:
"In a TrueHoop podcast on Tuesday, I misspoke in saying that Durant specifically told Westbrook he was coming back."
"On the podcast I said, 'Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant's sitting there at dinner, telling [Westbrook], 'Hey I'm coming back, man. Don't worry about it.' And now Russell Westbrook's kinda been thrown into this in having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected.'"
Young clarified: "These were not direct quotes meant to be attributed to Durant. It was an attempt to characterize what Westbrook thought his situation was going to be in Oklahoma City and how Durant's leaving impacts his thinking about his future."
The explanation still seems murky. Durant did not actually say those words, but Young's "attempt to characterize" is ambiguous at best.
Durant's decision will invite various accusations on his character: coward, bailer, cheater-very subjective terms. But whatever Young meant in his clarification, the bottom line is that Durant is not a liar-at least when it pertains to telling Westbrook he would stay in OKC.
