Ever since the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s rise from the start of this decade, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have seen their fair share of highs and lows as teammates. Doesn’t help that in the midst of their time together, the media has tried to initiate airs that the two share animosity.
With Summer 2016’s free agent season approaching, Durant has side-stepped questions of he and Westbrook’s chemistry and his pending free agency over the years, focusing on the team’s success. According to Durant, he now wishes the media felt the same way he did.
From ESPN:
“Man, the [media and experts are] always trying to nitpick us,” Kevin Durant told ESPN.com. “I mean, they don’t like us. They don’t like how Russell [Westbrook] talks to the media, they don’t like how I talk to the media. So obviously, yeah, they’re not going to give us the benefit of the doubt.”
To Durant, it’s baffling because although he and Westbrook have been teammates for eight seasons, he believes the media still treats them different, and wants them to not succeed.
“Especially since we’ve been together so long. Some of these teams are new, except for the Spurs, who have won. But we haven’t won and we’ve still got the same core, so they don’t expect us to win. It is what it is, who cares about them. They don’t mean nothing, the critics. Their opinions, everybody has one, but we don’t really care about them. Every day we’re just going to keep grinding this thing out. We feel like we can compete with anybody.”
Media often dishes out biased opinions. The only thing Durant can do about that realistically is lead the Thunder to an NBA title. He might then receive a different reaction from the press.
