Kevin Durant Just Ethered Westbrook, and Nobody Noticed: A Theory.

Much has been made of the thawing of the great ‘BFF-Except-No-Longer-F’ Durant-Westbrook Feud of 2017.

As you know, Westbrook capped off his historic, record-annihilating season by capturing his first MVP Award at this week’s NBA Awards. While the normal level of praise and adoration poured in, one curious and unexpected congratulatory post had NBA fanatics claiming a detente had been reached in the NBA’s chilliest Cold War in a decade.

THEY’RE FRIENDS AGAIN! Proclaimed Twitter.

THE WAR IS NO MORE! Sung the Instagram commenters.

DURANT HAS FORGIVEN! Read the headlines.

And sure, on the surface, a congratulatory message could be a sign of a renewed mutual respect between these two men. Emphasis on could. Because for a guy who was wearing a hat with a cupcake and a ring on it only a few short days ago, this seems like a pretty quick turnaround. So bear with me for a minute, as I posit an alternate theory.

What if, this was actually the dig to end all digs? What if this was a genius ploy by Durant, a dagger in plain sight, disguised as a gift? What if Durant just decimated Westbrook, and nobody bothered to notice? Follow along for a minute. (Puts on tin hat, walks down to the basement, shuts off all the lights).

Let’s start with the Durant message that appeared in most publications:

‘Huge congrats to Russell Westbrook on MVP, that boy went out there and was a created player on 2k all year, Fucking balled out. Gotta respect it.’

That sounds innocent enough. Wholesome. Maybe even brotherly. The problem is, that wasn’t the entire quote. In our need to 140 character everything, most outlets only ran that part, where it sounds like Durant is sending a heartfelt message to his former teammate. But here is the full comment from Durant — which he posted of all places — in the community section of his Youtube Channel. Notice the slight but important difference:

‘So happy for Malcolm Brogdon, what a year and accomplishment. Especially as a second round pick! Anything is possible people, I see a very bright future for him and his teammate Giannis. Congrats on MIP, this dude is a specimen that we’ve never seen before and it’s guaranteed that he will be an MVP one day! In fact, I called out this years MVP years ago so you gotta respect my knowledge for the game lol. Huge congrats to Russell Westbrook on MVP, that boy went out there and was a created player on 2k all year, Fuckin balled out. Gotta respect it!’

The part that was left out was the part where Durant claims that he ‘called this years MVP years ago’ and that we all ‘gotta respect Durant’s knowledge for the game’. He goes on to compliment Westbrook afterwards, sure, but he starts by complimenting his own basketball prowess. Not exactly the classiest move, but also, maybe innocent enough. But here’s where it gets really interesting.

Notice the way that Durant compliments Westbrook. He makes a very specific and seemingly odd reference to Westbrook as a ‘created player on 2k’. Most would interpret this as Durant saying that Westbrook played like a video game character, putting up video game character stats. But when I read this, I could only think of one thing — everyone hates the guy who makes a created player in 2k. When you play with a created player you hog the ball, and force insanely selfish shots, annoying your friends and teammates. Nobody wants to play with or against a guy using a created player, because created players are bullshit.

And for a moment, I figured that this might just be my video game nerdom coming out. Maybe I was trying to find smoke when there clearly isn’t any fire. But then I remembered this video of Durant on The Tonight Show a few years ago.

This shows several things. First, Durant isn’t just a casual gamer. He has a heated rivalry with his friends, and clearly understands the etiquette and language around 2K. He even points out what he considers to be shitty 2k behaviour, and the kind of people he won’t play against. So it’s clear, Durant gets this game. And while this doesn’t necessarily mean that Durant meant the ‘created player’ comment as an insult, it at the very least proves that Durant has a very intimate knowledge of the game. Which leads to the second possible meaning of his message — a well-hidden dig at Westbrook for not making the 2K cover.

It’s curious that the night after Westbrook received his own MVP Award, that Durant would mention 2k, especially considering that only a few short weeks ago, Westbrook was denied the honour of being named the 2K cover athlete, in favour of Kyrie, an opponent Durant was just vanquished himself.

Also recall that in the above video, Durant is on Fallon to promote his appearance on the 2K cover after Durant was named the MVP. It could have been a throwaway comment, or it could have been a perfectly executed reference to the fact that when Durant was MVP, he got to be a cover athlete, while Westbrook did not receive that same honour. Durant probably knew the wound was still fresh, and chose to poke at it, on what should have been Westbrook’s happy day. Which brings us to the last point.

Durant knew that the day after being named MVP, it would be all about Russ. Even if you want to discount everything else above, consider this: Durant is very aware of himself, and is a shrewd media manipulator. He’s proven time and time again that he has a great sense of what will blow up and spread, and how to capture headlines. So isn’t it possible that an increasingly petty Durant might take this opportunity to steal Russ’ spotlight, by making the news all about himself?

Instead of Russ being front and center on what’s the biggest day of his career, instead, everyone was talking about Durant, and how he had made peace, and how he was the bigger man, and how he had ended the feud between the two. Even though he’s been gone for a year, it was once again all about Durant, just like it had always been in OKC. Westbrook had worked all year to get out of the Durant spotlight, and with one little Youtube comment, Durant unravelled all that. Pure. Diabolical. Genius.

Sure, that sounds insane. Maybe this was genuinely a grown-up Durant who realized it was time to bury the hatchet, and support his old, dear friend in his time of greatest accomplishment. Or maybe, just maybe, this was an increasingly petty Durant lashing out in a way that would hurt Russ, but still make Durant a hero in everyone’s eyes. Naw, it must be the former.

Right?