In Staying with OKC, Russell Westbrook Reveals More Than His Words Ever Have

For years we’ve debated and argued and probed the relationship between Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, trying to decipher what they thought of each other and, more important, what they think of themselves.

Now we know.

What was downright unnatural and unseen in NBA history is now in the past: two MVP-caliber players coexisting happily in their overlapping primes, melding their egos, sharing the ball and avoiding killing each other…all while not winning a title.

After eight years of that unfulfilling stability, we have Kevin Durant going to that side and Russell Westbrook staying on this side.

It makes sense in an NBA way.

If the results aren’t there, stars usually opt to realign in order to shine brighter.

We expect it, we understand it, and the truth is that it really does help us see stars for who and what they are.

Westbrook clearly agrees.

For all the breathless conclusions that Durant abandoned Westbrook and the automatic speculation that Westbrook wouldn’t be able to deal with it, Westbrook is flat-out declaring his intention to win on his own by agreeing to a new contract with the Thunder, according to NBA sources.

It’s something Thunder general manager Sam Presti trusted would happen, and Westbrook’s boundless confidence made him duty-bound to try.

Don’t be simplistic and think only of how much ball usage and stat production Westbrook will get out of this. He is a far more sophisticated thinker than most know, and he truly wants to see what he can do—for himself and for a franchise that has done right by him.

While Durant chose to play new-school ball on easy street with the nearly-sure-thing Golden State Warriors, Westbrook wants the colossal challenge of being an old-school main man saddled with the outsized responsibility to will an underdog team someplace no one expects it can go.

See how much we’ve learned about them already?

Separating them clarifies them.

Westbrook, though averse to sharing his deeper truths and …

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