Durant and Westbrook were one of the most-feared duos in the 2010s.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, led by James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook, was one of the most promising teams of the 2010s. Yes, they were very young, but they were experienced and talented enough to reach the 2012 NBA Finals.
Harden’s departure later that summer was heartbreaking. But as the next season progressed, fans and analysts saw that the KD-Russ tandem could still win critical games.
In 2016, as the Thunder embarked on another playoff run, Durant talked about his partnership with Westbrook, how they turned the Thunder into a winning team, and his ultimate goal with the athletic guard.
The ultimate goal
“I think about that all the time,” Durant said of winning a title with Westbrook, per ESPN. “That’s the ultimate goal. When you’ve built this thing from the bottom up, the pioneers of this thing, you want to go through the great times with them because we’ve been through the tough ones.”
“That’s the thing about me and Russ — we’re always trying to grow. There’s always going to be bumps and bruises along the way. That’s just how it is,” he added.
The 2016 NBA Playoffs tested their brotherhood. For the first time since 2014, the Thunder made it back to the Western Conference Finals. This time around, they faced a 73-win Golden State Warriors team.
Surprisingly, OKC managed to craft a 3-1 lead against the title favorites. But the Warriors won 73 games for a reason. They climbed back from the deficit and ousted the Thunder.
Jumping ship
As Durant witnessed the Warriors give up a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, it slowly dawned on him that his style of play perfectly matched the Dubs. Durant and Russell Westbrook were one of the most-feared duos in the 2010s.’
He also foresaw the criticism he would get if he signed with the Warriors. But Durant didn’t care about it. It was his life and his basketball career, anyway.
“It was a basketball decision, but I knocked down the, like, ‘not giving a f–k ladder’ with that too,” he said. “It kinda knocked down two birds with one stone with that. But it was mainly; I felt I was the absolute perfect fit with what you guys were doing on both ends of the ball. And I knew my game had reached a point where I needed to really see what that looked like. I thought that was just a no-brainer. I would do that s–t a million times. And, you know, again I wouldn’t- I didn’t second guess it at all…it went perfect.”
As written in the history books, Durant was right—he cruised to two titles with the Warriors. Meanwhile, Westbrook took his game to the next level, becoming the franchise’s legend before leaving in 2019.
Does KD still hold the same ultimate goal now in 2024? For sure. The same can be said about Russ, although he’s not the superstar he was during his time with the Thunder.