Kevin Durant Emotionally Opens Up About Russell Westbrook’s Retirement

Russell Westbrook officially announced his retirement after 18 seasons in the NBA on Aug. 12, and it hit his former teammate Kevin Durant hard. Durant sat down with Speedy Mormon on the latest episode of Boardroom Talks, and Westbrook’s retirement was brought up on the show.

“It just hit me, man, ’cause it’s just like that’s one of the first dudes you come in with and you was around every day to finally step out of this s***,” Durant said. “It’s just like a lot of the guys that have been younger than me or drafted after me have retired, but I wasn’t as close to them as I was to Russell… And then as somebody I felt like can still play.

“It surprised me,” Durant continued. “So, yeah, it is one of those things that you can appreciate all the time spent, and then somebody like Russell who’s doing a lot off the court too, I want to see what he does next.”

Westbrook hasn’t shared his post-retirement plans yet. The 37-year-old has been presented with a couple of opportunities, but it’s unlikely he takes them. Whatever he does, it is going to be a big adjustment after spending all these years in the NBA.

The Seattle SuperSonics had selected Westbrook with the No. 4 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. The SuperSonics relocated soon after picking him and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Westbrook and Durant, whom the SuperSonics selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, would quickly turn the Thunder into a contender. They got to the NBA Finals in 2012 and made three other trips to the Western Conference Finals in their eight seasons as teammates.

The championship eluded the Thunder, however, and Durant controversially chose to leave for the Golden State Warriors in 2016. There was some bad blood between him and Westbrook after that, but they eventually mended fences.

Durant put out a wonderful statement on X the day after Westbrook retired. The Houston Rockets superstar congratulated him for an iconic career.

As for how Durant found out about Westbrook’s retirement, he shared that here as well.

“I was on a plane coming back from somewhere, and I had fell asleep,” Durant said. “And I didn’t have WiFi on the plane, and then it just kicked in, and then I got a bunch of texts. Somebody was like, ‘Yo, you want to talk about Russell retirement?’ I’m like, ‘What the f***?’ I looked in Shams [Charania]; you always got to go to Shams tweets.

“And yeah, it was shocking, man, because like I said, I thought he could still play,” Durant added. “And I feel like he’s been a good veteran presence in the locker room that somebody would want him around. But I heard he had a couple offers that he just turned down. He just wanted to step away.”