Kevin Durant on Broken Relationship With Russell Westbrook: ‘I’m Not Even Thinking About You’

By Carlo Monzon
Kevin Durant
Rio Olympic gold medalists team USA mens basketball and Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant and Team USA wrestling's Helen Maroulis pose for a picture with their gold medals during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. The Steelers won 38-16.  Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

The offseason took many NBA fans by surprise primarily because of the numerous roster changes made by various teams. Probably the most notable one was Kevin Durant's decision to leave Russell Westbrook and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors.

Following Durant's exit, there have been a lot of speculations regarding Westbrook and OKC. Many of these revolved around Westbrook harboring ill feelings towards his former teammate because of his decision to join an already powerful franchise.

After Westbrook brushed off these speculations, the public's attention turned to Durant and how he plans to face these issues once the 2016-2017 NBA season begins.

Recently, during his appearance on HBO's "Any Give Wednesday with Bill Simmons," Durant talked about his new relationship with Westbrook now that he's no longer part of the Thunder organization.

"When you step in between the lines, that's when we compete," Durant said. "That's when we're gonna go at each other. That's when I'm gonna do what I do in my zone and you're gonna do what you do. I don't carry that with me as soon as I step off the court. It's not like... I don't care about you that much to try to want to hate you."

"I hear all that time that Michael hated such and such, Isiah hated such and such," he added. "I'm not thinking about you at home when I'm on my couch for me to hate you that much. That's just not who I am."

Durant then went on to say that once the season kicks off, he'll be focused too much on winning games than thinking about Westbrook.

"When we play, I'm not even thinking about you," he said. "I'm worried about how I'm gonna dominate. I'm not going out and meeting Russell by his car and wanting to talk to him and he's not gonna want to fight me. I don't care about all that stuff."

"I'm gonna go out there and when we play, I'm gonna hoop the way I've always hooped my whole like and I'm gonna compete the way I've always competed," he continued. "The work doesn't stop. I've really just got a different jersey on."

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