This is not what you want to hear if you're an Oklahoma City Thunder fan. According to The Oklahoman, Thunder co-stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook got into a shouting match on the bench and needed to be separated during their game against the Grizzlies on Wednesday night.
Per the report, Durant and a couple other teammates had to calm Westbrook down on the court in the second quarter after he became frustrated with Thabo Sefolosha for passing up on an open 3-pointer. Westbrook apparently let his emotions get the best of him during a timeout just a minute later and that's when the two got into it.
"We're going to disagree sometimes, like I've always been saying," Durant admitted after the game. "But I'm behind him 110 percent, and he's the same way with me. And you seen when we came on the floor we clicked and everything started to work from there."
Westbrook, who went on to have one of the worst games of his career with just four points on 0-for-13 shooting, didn't talk to reporters after Oklahoma City's win. Royce Young of CBS Sports pointed out that it's normal for Westbrook to skip out on reporters, even after good performances.
This of course, is not the first time the youngest scoring champ in NBA history has had to squash rumors and stories about rifts in his relationship with the All-Star point guard. In the middle of a Game 4 loss to the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs last season, the pair had a heated exchange to which Durant said afterward, "sometimes you have to scream at guys for them to get the point."
Back in September, Durant denied any talk of bad blood between him and Westbrook to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
"We butt heads just like any other players because we are both competitive, we both want to go at it, we both have ideas," he said. "I support him 100 percent. Of course, I hated when people were saying the stuff they were saying, and he hated it as well. I didn’t want it to get to his head. I hate when people try to creep into the group and try to break things up."
Oklahoma City and their fans better can only hope that the two can truly co-exist. If they can then this team has the talent to rule the West. But, if they can't, then perhaps we are looking at a Marbury-Garnett redux.