{"id":509870,"date":"2026-08-13T22:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=509870"},"modified":"2026-08-13T22:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:15:31","slug":"durant-pays-tribute-to-westbrook-it-was-inspiring-congratulations-on-a-iconic-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/durant-pays-tribute-to-westbrook-it-was-inspiring-congratulations-on-a-iconic-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Durant pays tribute to Westbrook: \u201cIt was inspiring, congratulations on a iconic career\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Durant paid tribute to Russell Westbrook following his former teammate\u2019s retirement announcement. The two shared part of their journey in Oklahoma City, including an NBA Finals run, and Durant reflected on Westbrook\u2019s character, work ethic and impact throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember asking assistant coach Mo Cheeks, what\u2019s harder to do? Workout after practice or before?? I only asked cuz by time I would get to the gym, Russ was already done in the morning and I usually got mine in after practice. Mo like, \u201ccoming in before practice is probably harder\u201d\u2026since then, it\u2019s been my routine\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of people looked at the emotions on the court and thought Russ was loud, nah to me, he was quiet and methodical. He lead by example and once the lights were bright, he let everything out and experienced pure freedom. It was inspiring as his teammate and everywhere I went, I seen it inspire people from all walks of life, crazy thing is, he didn\u2019t say much, he just showed up. For 18 years. <\/p>\n<p>This basketball life is sacred to us as professionals, what we put into that court means everything. Some of us wish we could go back and do things with a little more intent and some can just wipe their hands and be satisfied with the time spent. Who u gonna be? We know what zero was on\u2026keep inspiring in the next phase of life champ.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t care what happens, can\u2019t erase what it was\u2026The first YNs, finals run in our early 20s, all star games, seeing each other get injured and bounce back, the bus rides, plane rides, card games, jokes and arguments, the whole thing, memorable!! \u2026to the whole Westbrook family, Nina, the kids, mama Westbrook, big Russ, Ray, Donnell, everybody from luezinger high and ucla and many more that I\u2019m forgettin, much love and Congratulations on a iconic career.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I remember asking assistant coach Mo Cheeks, what\u2019s harder to do? Workout after practice or before?? I only asked cuz by time I would get to the gym, Russ was already done in the morning and I usually got mine in after practice. Mo like, \u201ccoming in before practice is probably\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KDTrey5\/status\/2087984569652007372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durant shared a heartfelt message for his former teammate following Westbrook\u2019s retirement announcement, reflecting on their years together on and off the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":400187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-509870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/08\/kevin-durant-photo-fiba-semifinale.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":509871,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509870\/revisions\/509871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509870"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=509870"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=509870"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=509870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}