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Skip Bayless praised Kevin Durant for assisting the Golden State Warriors in two of their three championships despite everyone wanting him to fail. He said:
“Steph said ‘I’ve got a Maserati here, I’ll just slide right over to the passenger seat, you take the wheel.’ And he took it. And I was impressed, I wasn’t ever sure about Kevin Durant until he just took the wheel.”
Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Russell Westbrook and OKC rocked the league and he quickly became public enemy number one. After spending nine seasons in Oklahoma City with no championships, Durant left the team to join Curry in Golden State.
In a move that many regarded as a cheap ploy for an easy championship, Durant gained criticism and negativity very quickly. Especially since at the time, Westbrook was viewed as the dominant force in the league. Not being able to win alongside Russell read to most as a fault of Durant’s, up until recently, argues Skip Bayless.
Bayless outlines why he believes Durant’s move to Golden State has recently been bailed out:
“I believe that Kevin Durant just got taken completely off the hook for his first 9 years in this league because his costar in Oklahoma City was ‘Westbrick’, and I believed that ‘Westbrick’ got so exposed as the starting point guard for his Los Angeles Lakers that people did finally look back at those 9 years and say, ‘you know what, Durant was right.’”
After the Los Angeles Lakers had a terrible season with Westbrook at point, the headlines have not been too kind to the former OKC man. As a result, Skip Bayless argues that the public is finally able to see what Durant saw all those years ago; that there was no hope for a championship with Russell.
Skip Bayless questions Russell Westbrook's pedigree to be on a championship contender
Whatever the reason, Westbrook has been unable to work with two of the greatest basketball players of all-time. Russell was once regarded as an explosive and reliable player on both ends of the court.
He and Kevin Durant failed to produce, and he and LeBron James failed to produce. Skip Bayless has been rather vocal on Russ, or as the analyst calls him, ‘Westbrick’, for some time now. The recent performance in Los Angeles gave him a lot of fuel this season.
With Durant’s exit of OKC, Westbrook would be the hero for staying and ultimately not being the first of the two to leave. Russ would end up departing in 2019 for the Houston Rockets to be reunited with former teammate James Harden, where the duo would again fail to make waves towards a championship.
The negativity Kevin Durant received after his OKC exit was very large. Fast forward to now, and James Harden has jumped to the Nets super squad, and then to the 76ers with Embiid. While Russell Westbrook joined the Los Angeles Lakers super squad. Both Harden and Russ have tried exactly what Durant did so early on, and the difference is simple: KD made it work.
After the players KD left in OKC have all attempted to do the same thing he did, Skip Bayless believes him to be off the hook.
