A glimpse of the past

By Johann Layug

It’s that time of the year again for basketball fans and sports fans all over again where 24 of the best basketball players in the world come together and go head to head on what is called as the “ultimate pick-up game” or simply known as the NBA All Star Game.

Aside from the A list celebrities and the NBA players off court fashion choices there is more hype in this years All Star Game than any other All Star Games for the past 20 years and that is the anticipated re-teaming up of bestfriends/teammates turned rivals Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook.        
                                                     

                                photo credits
     

As many of us know Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City Thunder last summer to join a elite company the Golden State Warriors leaving his now former bestfriend in the dust. And on their last two match-ups both of these two supertars got into a verbal exchange and Westbrook allegedly calling Durant a “B*tcha**”.

Last Saturday on the All Stars media day both Durant and Westbrook deflects questions from media regarding playing with each other, notably one reporter asking Westbrook on what is his thoughts on playing with Durant again in which Westbrook smoothly replied “What is your favorite fashion brand?” Nowhere near the question right? And it continued whenever reporters attempts to ask Westbrook he’ll just deflect the question with humor.

Come All-star game the hype just got into another level as Westbrook is seen warming-up on the opposite court by himself maybe avoiding Durant whom takes shots with fellow All-stars.

Coach Steve Kerr this years hinted that he intends to play both Durant and Westbrook together and shortly after Kerr inserted Westbrook exactly at the five minute mark of the first quarter the two teamed up in a give and go alley-oop play which ended in a thunderous dunk and made the whole arena rocking in cheers as the two a little glimpse of the past and at the West All-stars bench you can hear Steph Curry shouting “OH MY GOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?” And during a time-out the West All-stars bench went jumping celebrating the alley-oop dunk made by the former teammates. On a sideline interview asked about that play Westbrook quoted "It was a nice give-and-go, man," Westbrook said. "Good give-and-go. Made a good pass. I barely got over the rim, but it was a nice give-and-go." And on a half time interview Durant added:  "It was a great basketball play. He was open so I threw him the lob. He can jump really high so yeah, good play."

Unfortunately that’s the only time the two played together on the court as both of them were inserted in the game simultaneously. Eventually the West All-stars got the win 192-182 Westbrook scored 41 points and Durant recorded a triple-double with 21 points 10 assists and 10 rebounds but the MVP  goes to the New Orleans’ very own Anthony Davis who broke a 55 year-old scoring record set by Wilt Chamberlain at 42 with Davis scoring 52.