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Kevin Durant 'likes' Instagram comment disparaging Russell Westbrook

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
Kevin Durant just won’t leave well enough alone with Russell Westbrook. (AP)
Kevin Durant just won’t leave well enough alone with Russell Westbrook. (AP)

Just when you thought Kevin Durant’s beef with Russell Westbrook had been beaten to death, just when you thought the reigning NBA Finals MVP’s strange social media habits had been laid to rest, Durant breathed life back into both, naturally, in the comments section of an Instagram fan page.

This can get confusing, as do all things involving a Durant-Westbrook feud that prominently features cupcakes and a photographer’s bib. So, let’s set the table. In an interview with ESPN’s Nick Friedell, Durant likened his tenure with the Oklahoma City Thunder to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s on the Milwaukee Bucks, saying, “He’s not going to stay in Milwaukee if he’s not having fun playing the game.”

That quote made it to an Antetokounmpo fan page on Instagram:

“He’s not going to stay in Milwaukee if he’s not having fun playing the game”~KD #giannisantetokounmpo #greekfreak #bucks #kd#warriors

A post shared by Giannis Antetokounmpo (@allantetokounmpo) on Apr 23, 2018 at 9:10am PDT

As you might expect, the quote garnered quite a response, and two fans made some rather cogent points for an internet comment section, laying out a pair of reasons why Durant might have left OKC:

@xavier21phoenix: “I never had any issues with KD leaving OKC like most people do. It’s his career, his life. He has the right to go wherever he so chooses. KD lost interest in playing with OKC because he finally realized that they weren’t going to win with the subpar squad they had. So he chose to sign with a team that he knew he’d win a ring with. Nothing wrong with that, but clearly, loyalty didn’t matter as much to him as winning did. Which is my point.”

@bayshero: “@xavier21phoenix ‘subpar’ lmfao the problem was westbrook. They had a good ass team.”

Durant, who has now repeatedly warned us against the entrapments of social media, was apparently scrolling through the Instagram comment section of this random Antetokounmpo fan page and “liked” the comment disparaging Westbrook as “the problem” with the Thunder. Sports Illustrated noted it:

If Durant agrees that the Thunder were “a good ass team” but for Westbrook, it would be a departure from what the Golden State Warriors star tweeted in September [sic]: “he didn’t like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan. His roster wasn’t that good, it was just him and russ. … imagine taking russ off that team, see how bad they were. Kd can’t win a championship with those cats.”

Sure enough, Durant said he hit the “like” button by mistake:

Now, Durant will surely suggest this means nothing, that “blog boys” blew this out of proportion, that this is a broader commentary on the ridiculousness of sports media, and that all may be true. But it will also mean everything to Westbrook, whose equally petty response will continue keeping this two-year-old storyline alive, even with the ex-teammates on opposite ends of the West playoff bracket.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!