TEAM BONDING
All-Star festivities help Durant reconnect with Westbrook, ease tension
LOS ANGELES >>
The two players interacted as if they remained longtime friends. Russell Westbrook sat by his locker, while Kevin Durant stood by and talked. Once practice started, the two passed the ball to each other during warmups.
For the past year, tension hung over the pair ever since Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors before the 2016-17 season. If nothing else, those moments on Saturday provided some détente.
“I feel like I messed that up,” Durant said later. “I made it a thing when it shouldn’t have been. It’s cool to kind of get past that and appreciate what these guys for who they are and what they do. It’s all love.”
So for a contest that usually bears little defense and little significance in the outcome, the NBA All-Star Game provides these moments that shape players’ careers. After all, Durant’s lob to Westbrook in last year’s game in New Orleans marked one of the first steps of reconciling.
“It’s been fine. It’s been normal,” Westbrook said. “Communicating and that’s about it. All the other stuff is kind of irrelevant. Keeping it cool. Talking to me when we need to and moving it forward.”
In hopes to produce more meaning, the Sunday’s All-Star Game will ditch the traditional matchups between Eastern Conference and Western Conference stars. Instead, it will feature two dreams constructed by captains Stephen Curry and LeBron James.
So unlike what the Warriors have enjoyed for the past 1½ seasons, Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will not play with Durant. So, that means one thing.
“Hard screens on KD, hard fouls on KD,” Green said, smiling. “It’s going to be a battle. It should be fun. Hopefully it doesn’t mess up our relationship to try to pursue this championship.”
Curry proclaimed his roster “the best shooting team” and boasted that Houston coach Mike D’Antoni is “catered to our roster pretty well.” Durant shared that All-Star teammate Kyrie Irving proclaimed James’ team to be “the best All-Star lineup in the history of the All-Star Game.” Curry, Thompson, Green and Durant have played a large part of that history in recent seasons.
While Durant will make his ninth consecutive AllStar appearance, Green, Curry and Thomas will play on the same All-Star team for the third consecutive year.
“We’ve all grown together,” Green said. “When I first came in the league, Stephen wasn’t who he is now and Klay wasn’t who he is now. I clearly wasn’t in the position I was in.”
The Warriors drafted Green 35th overall in 2012, only for him to soon become a versatile playmaker, emotional leader and defensive specialist en route to his third All-Star appearance as a reserve. The Warriors selected Thompson 11th overall in 2011, only for him to become a dependable sharpshooter and defender en route to his fourth All-Star appearance. And the Warriors picked Curry seventh overall in 2009, whose dependable shooting and playmaking led to five AllStar appearances.
More importantly, all of those skills helped the Warriors win two NBA championships in the past three years.
“It just gives me a perspective around what I do for a living and an appreciation for being on this stage,” Curry said. “It motivates me to keep working hard so I can be back here every year. I just enjoy the honor and opportunity to lace up my shoes with 23 of the best players in the NBA.”
Curry called it “surreal” when he first became a Western Conference starter in 2014, despite scoring only 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Thompson most enjoyed when he made his All-Star debut as a starter in 2015 despite posting only seven points on a 2-of-11 clip.
“That was such a foreign thing to me and was pretty nervous the whole week,” Thompson recalled. “I didn’t know how to really operate. Now that I’m used to it, it’s different.”
No one went through such a rites-of-passage more than Durant.
He attended one NBA All-Star weekend as a middle school kid. He also listened to NBA All-Star games on the radio. That gave Durant one specific goal to reach: “All I wanted to do was be the best player I could be.”
Durant made progress with that when he made his first All-Star appearance in 2010 and he had 15 points as a reserve. A year later, Durant scored 34 points only to lose the All-Star MVP award to Kobe Bryant after posted 37 points and 14 rebounds. That helped fuel Durant to an All-Star MVP performance in 2012 when he finished with 36 points on 14of-25 shooting.
I’m trying to showcase what I got,” Durant said. “I wanted to go out there and have some fun and score the ball. That’s my type of game, a street-ball game. I wanted to go out there and have some fun and be one of the best among the best. This is where you can showcase this — at an AllStar Game.”
Curry and Thompson have not showcased enough to win any All-Star MVP awards. But Curry won the NBA 3-point competition in 2015, while Thompson won in 2016. Meanwhile, Green conceded “it’ll be cool” to become an All-Star starter after being named a reserve for the past three seasons.
“There’ someone that doesn’t believe in me. So you’re trying to make everyone you possibly can a believer,” Green said. “You’re working against yourself, I don’t allow what someone else sees to move me. I always compete against myself and I always want to get better. So I’m just trying to get better all the time.”
It seems inevitable more memorable moments will happen on Sunday. Perhaps Green has some trash-talking moments with Durant. Perhaps Curry will have the same thing with James after they both constructed their respective teams. And perhaps Thompson will have bragging rights against Paul George, James Harden and DeMar DeRozan after all four grew up in different areas in Los Angeles.
“I wouldn’t have thought of this,” Thompson said. “To be doing this in front of a global audience, it’s hard to put into words. I can’t wait to get out there.”