“Only Russell Westbrook can stop Kevin Durant”: Damian Lillard once called out 2017 MVP’s ball-stopping tendencies

Damian Lillard once hilariously tweeted out saying Russell Westbrook was the only one who could stop Kevin Durant from scoring.

Sam Presti had perhaps the greatest 3-year run in the NBA Draft from 2007-09. He picked Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden in those 3 drafts consecutively, with all three of them becoming MVPs in the 2010s. in their first year together on NBA hardwood for the OKC Thunder, they won 50 games after having won just 23 the year prior.

The Thunder’s main offensive weapons were undoubtedly Russ and KD as Harden was first man off the bench in his 3 years with them. A prime Westbrook with a prime Durant, on paper, is close to an unlimited amount of firepower from all three levels of scoring.

However, when you put two score-first/ alpha-dogs on the same team, it’s tough to get touches for everybody else. ‘Hero-ball’ was a phrase that was most associated with the way the Thunder operated when it came down to crunch-time.

‘You go, I go’ was their philosophy on offense, which led to a bit too many isolation buckets. Compared to the last opponent Kevin Durant and Russ faced together (Golden State Warriors), they had absolutely no flow in their offense.

Also read: Shaquille O’Neal claims 2-time NBA champ Kevin Durant’s career is an ‘abject failure’

Damian Lillard on the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook dynamic.

Old tweets from NBA players are always a great read considering what’s happened in the decade+ time that they decided to put them up on their timeline. Damian Lillard’s dig at Russell Westbrook aged perfectly as in 2011 he decided to tweet out:

“Ok Durant is that dude… Unstoppable, the only person who can stop him from scoring is Westbrook haha.” Dame has since deleted the tweet but you can find it below.

Durant was averaging 27.4 points on 48% shooting from the field in the 641 games he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most of those came alongside Russell Westbrook and so technically, the 2017 MVP didn’t stop KD from getting his buckets. However, their score-first tendencies eventually led to them parting ways.

Also read: 6ft 10′ Kevin Durant’s ‘sarcastic reply’ to fan calling Michael Jordan an Insurance Salesman