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Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant briefly renew their friendship with an alley-oop

ben rohrbach
Senior writer
Alley-oops heal all wounds. (Getty Images)
Alley-oops heal all wounds. (Getty Images)

The drama between former Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant built throughout All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, with the NBA pitting them on opposite ends of the Western Conference locker room during Friday’s media availability and Westbrook strictly answering questions about potential awkwardness between the two with commentary about fashion week.

The spotlight shone brighter during pregame, when Westbrook and Durant warmed up on opposite ends of the court for a period and then shared an awkward exchange when they passed each other.

Prior to and early on in the game, West coach Steve Kerr made several attempts to squash the beef:

Midway through the first quarter, Kerr subbed in Westbrook, whose status as a reserve is one of the all-time All-Star snubs, so that all three former Thunder teammates — along with Durant and James Harden — could share the floor. Soon enough, we had our answer to how the feuding friends would coexist on court together, and the result was a spectacular alley-oop reminiscent of their OKC days:

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Kerr quickly subbed Durant out of the game, seemingly content to have gotten that out of the way:

But their West teammates wouldn’t let them off so easily, showering Westbrook and Durant with a mock cheer during an ensuing timeout that managed to elicit smiles from the ex-Thunder buddies:

Friends forever! At least until NBA on TNT’s David Aldridge started interviewing them on the sidelines.

From the West bench, Warriors forward Draymond Green called the alley-oop “cute” — perhaps a veiled reference to Westbrook using the same word to describe Durant’s new friendships in Golden State — and Westbrook wouldn’t offer much more than “good give-and-go, made a good pass”:

Likewise, Durant said at halftime, “He was open,” and, “It was nothing more than a great pass, great finish.”

After the game, which the West won, 192-182, thanks to 41 points, seven assists and five rebounds from Westbrook and a triple-double (21 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) from Durant, it was more of the same cold-shouldering from Westbrook, who wouldn’t exactly call the alley-oop a Kumbaya moment:

Q. Russ, I’m sorry to break this great atmosphere, but the first quarter, you kind of made peace with Kevin Durant or whatever happened. Can you take us back into the first quarter?

Westbrook: Oh, that was the question?

Q. I’m sorry. The question is: First quarter, you and Kevin Durant, you spoke to each other, kind of had some fun, it’s all over now?

Westbrook: Yeah, he threw a lob. That’s all that happened. Just threw a lob. It’s basketball. That’s it.

Q. No high fives, nothing?

Westbrook: Did you see it?

Yup, there is still shade in this spotlight.

Hell froze over, pigs flew + so did @russwest44, on an alley-oop from @trey5 in the #nbaallstar game

A post shared by Ball Don't Lie (@yahooballdontlie) on Feb 19, 2017 at 7:50pm PST

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!