Friends, then foes, now friends again
LOS ANGELES — One of the more intriguing subplots in Sunday’s All-Star Game was that two pairs of former teammates with much-publicized rifts — LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook — were all on the court again as members of Team LeBron.
By all accounts, those icy relationships appear to have thawed. Video surfaced of James and Irving laughing and joking on the sidelines. A day after trading passes at practice, Durant and Westbrook warmed up together.
“It was phenomenal,” James said when asked about playing with Irving again. “Anytime you’re able to get back and play with one of your old teammates, and as great as he is, we all know that. The flashiness, the ball-handling, the ability to shoot, it was just great to get back on the floor with him. It was a great moment, for sure.”
Unlike last year, when the Western Conference beat the Eastern Conference 192-182, Sunday’s new-look matchup had at least a semblance of competition. On the late basket that gave Team LeBron a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, Irving made the assist to James.
“I played with him a few times,” Irving said. “I cut back door, Russ was driving, I saw the opportunity. I saw, before even Russ even passed to me, LeBron was going to circle to the rim, and one of the best finishers at the rim.” D’Antoni jokes: Six days after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr turned over the team huddle to his players in Golden State’s 129-83 rout of Phoenix, Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni — the head coach of Team Stephen at Sunday’s All-Star Game — seized the opportunity to poke fun at the Rockets’ biggest Western Conference threat.
“The Golden State guys kept taking my clipboard and trying to draw up plays, and I had to fight them,” D’Antoni said when asked postgame for a snapshot of the team huddles. “I don’t understand that one.” Green reaction: Midway through pop singer Fergie’s shrieking, slow-tempo rendition of the national anthem at Staples Center, TV cameras caught Warriors forward Draymond Green, mouth agape, apparently zoning out before he broke into a chuckle.
The 11-second clip quickly went viral. Asked after the game what he was thinking during that sequence, Green said, “I was just chilling, man.” Prodded for his review of Fergie’s national anthem, Green said, “I don’t know. It’s the national anthem.”