Kevin Durant isn’t buying the idea that Russell Westbrook was done.
Nearly a month after Westbrook stunned the basketball world by announcing his retirement, Durant said he still believes his former Thunder teammate had more to give. Westbrook walked away after 18 seasons, closing the book on a career that made him one of the defining stars of the 2010s and a sure Hall-of-Famer.
“I thought he could still play. I feel like he'd be a good veteran presence in a locker room that somebody would want him around,” Durant said.
“But I heard he had a couple of offers that he just turned down. He just wanted to step away.”
Westbrook’s final season came with the Sacramento Kings, where he averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds. Even with those numbers and reported offers on the table, he chose retirement over taking on a veteran leader role.
For plenty of people around the league, Durant’s view matched the reaction they already had. Westbrook was still productive, still respected, and still capable of helping a team.
But retirement has never been only about whether a player can keep going. In Westbrook’s case, it looks like he decided he’d already done enough.
And he had done plenty. He was the first major NBA superstar from the 2010s to call it a career, and during that run he changed the way the triple-double is viewed. At his peak, he was one of the league’s most electric players, blending elite athleticism with scoring, playmaking and rebounding at a level few could match.
The response across the sport was immediate and wide-ranging, with Westbrook getting tributes from around the globe. Durant’s comments carried extra weight because of what the two meant to each other and to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He later wrote a lengthy letter reflecting on Westbrook’s work ethic and the traits that helped turn him into one of the game’s top players.
Durant and Westbrook are two of the three greatest players in Thunder history, and together they formed the centerpiece of Oklahoma City’s first true title contender. Over eight seasons, they reached the 2012 NBA Finals and made four Western Conference Finals trips.
Their split eventually turned ugly, and neither ended up with a ring together. But that doesn’t erase what they built. For eight seasons, Durant and Westbrook were one of the most dangerous duos the NBA has seen.
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