“See This S***”: Russell Westbrook Didn’t Mince His Words When Kevin Durant Left OKC to Join Warriors, Says Ex-Teammate

In May 2016, a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals felt like a formality. The Golden State Warriors had just come off a 73-win regular season, but Oklahoma City had them cornered, up 3-1 with a trip to the Finals against Cleveland waiting on the other side. Everyone inside that locker room believed the series was already decided. What happened next reshaped the careers of everyone involved, and a former teammate is revealed exactly how it fractured a friendship in real time.

Dion Waiters detailed the collapse and its immediate aftermath on the Real Talk With MJ podcast. He described a locker room blindsided twice - first by the loss, then by what came after it.

“We was in the WCF up 3-1 against GS,” Waiters said. “Tricked it off, bro. We’re supposed to have went to the Finals against Cleveland. I feel like we would’ve beat Cleveland.”

“Kev left, went to GS." he added. "Before that, KD text me and Serge like, how y’all think about bringing this thing back for one more year? We’re texting in the group message a couple of times, and I ain’t hear back from KD about it.” What followed was the moment that gave the story its title. “Russ hit me up like, ‘You see this s***? This s*** crazy.’ That’s when he called me.”

Oklahoma City led the series 3-1 and held a double-digit lead in Game 6. Golden State came back to force a Game 7. Kevin Durant announced his decision to join the Warriors on July 4, 2016, in a Players’ Tribune essay, ending months of speculation and immediately reshaping the league’s competitive balance.

Golden State had just lost to Cleveland in the Finals weeks earlier. Adding Durant to a core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green created a superteam that would go on to win two of the next three championships.

Westbrook’s reaction, as Waiters described was seen as genuine shock rather than anticipated betrayal. The two had been paired together since Durant was drafted second overall in 2007 and Westbrook fourth in 2008, building nearly a decade of shared playoff runs, an MVP-caliber partnership, and a Finals appearance together in 2012.

The paths Westbrook and Durant took following the split have been talked about in the years since. Westbrook stayed in Oklahoma City and delivered one of the most statistically dominant individual seasons in NBA history the very next year, averaging a triple-double for the full 2016-17 campaign and winning MVP.

Durant, meanwhile, won back-to-back championships and two Finals MVP awards with Golden State. He validated the move on paper even as it permanently altered how his legacy is discussed relative to players who built their success from within a single organization.

The two reportedly didn’t speak for an extended period following the split. The relationship only began to improve years later as both moved on to new teams and new phases of their careers.