On January 9th, 2020, Russell Westbrook played in Chesapeake Energy Arena. Although he didn’t play in an Oklahoma City Thunder Jersey… Westbrook played with a Houston Rockets Jersey. Westbrook was back in Oklahoma City for the first time since being traded in the summer for Chris Paul and first-round picks in 2024 and 2026- and the right to swap first-rounders in 2021 and 2025. Basically, the Rockets gave up their future to win now by going after Westbrook. Currently, the Rockets are sitting at 4th in the Western Conference at 26-12. So far, after almost halfway through the regular season, the trade has worked out for the Rockets. The main question for everyone remains as this: Can Russ And Harden win in the playoffs? That answer is to be determined. 

Russell Westbrook had 34 points, 2 rebounds, and 5 assists, but it wasn’t enough to get his team the victory as the Rockets fell to the Thunder, 113-92. The Thunder fans greeted him with love and support as they went through the pre-game process. Before the game opened up, everyone in Chesapeake Energy Arena watched a tribute for Russell Westbrook, for his time in Oklahoma City. 10 years is a long time. He spent an entire decade with one team, which means that memories will be made. Westbrook for sure has had many memorable moments with Oklahoma City throughout his 10-year tenure.

Also, there was a little bit of drama- which happened to be on the same night Westbrook returned to Oklahoma City. The drama also happened to involve two of Westbrooks’ former teammates: Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins. Kendrick Perkins called Westbrook “Mr.Thunder” and “the best player to wear a Thunder jersey”. Perkins tweeted that Durant lost in the second round of the playoffs without Westbrook. Durant inserted himself into the conversation and blasted Perkins for his lack of production in his time with the Thunder: “Yea and our starting center averaged a whopping 2 and 3 during that series. U Played hard tho champ lol”. After that, Perkins claimed that Durant made the weakest move in NBA history by joining the team that came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series 4-3. Perkins tweeted “Boy stop you did the weakest move in NBA History!!! Up on a team 3-1 in the western conference finals and then go join them the following season?! Heart of Champion right there”. Durant tweeted back a gif of something yawning and later tweeted “Weak is starting at center, playing real minutes with no production. Should’ve worked on your skills as much as I did”. Perkins replied: “That’s fine!!! You worked that hard and still had to go join a 73-9 team. Truth be told you don’t even feel like a real champ, you have a hard time sleeping at night, huh knowing that you took the cowardly way out!!!”

The drama settled down from there with no more tweets from either of the two. Perkins the next day opened ESPN’s “The Jump” with an apology to Westbrook for the drama between him and Durant overshadowing his return to Oklahoma City after being traded. Perkins later clarified that he never meant to say that Westbrook was more talented than Durant. He said he calls Westbrook “Mr.Thunder” because he stayed in Oklahoma City longer, won an MVP award with OKC in 2017 and kept the team in playoff contention all while stuffing the stat sheet (not to mention he became the first person in NBA history to average a triple-double in 3 consecutive seasons). For there is one certainty: Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Durant won’t be doing anything fun together anytime soon.