UPDATE (5:50pm PDT on Wednesday): ESPN reporter Royce Young has backtracked on his earlier quotes from a podcast that he attributed to Kevin Durant.
Young issued this explanation:
"These were not direct quotes meant to be attributed to Durant. It was an attempt to characterize what Westbrook thought his situation was going to be in Oklahoma City and how Durant's leaving impacts his thinking about his future."
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After eight seasons in Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant chose to join the Golden State Warriors.
According to ESPN's Royce Young, Durant told Russell Westbrook he would be playing for the Thunder in 2016-17.
[RELATED: Report: Westbrook 'ticked off' about Durant signing with Warriors]
"Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant’s sitting there at dinner, telling him (Westbrook) 'Hey, I’m coming back, man. Don’t worry about it,'" Young explained on a recent podcast. "And now, Russell Westbrook has been kind of thrown into this and having to decide his future a summer earlier than expected."
Westbrook is slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and the Thunder are reportedly trying to get the superstar point guard to sign a contract extension now.
Oklahoma City does not want to get to a point where Westbrook tests the free agent waters next July, and leaves for another franchise without the Thunder getting anything in return.
[RELATED: Relationship between Durant, Westbrook 'won't be the same']
That's what happened with Durant -- something the Thunder were not expecting.
"Kevin Durant ... was telling people, 'Hey, yeah, I mean I’m coming back,'" Young added. "A week before Kevin Durant sat down in the Hamptons, he was in Oklahoma City ready to make an offer on a multi-million-dollar house.
"So, the guy was pretty serious about coming back, and then things turned rather quickly for him to leave. And there’s no doubt that the organization felt a little bit burned by this."
Durant's restaurant in Oklahoma City, "Kd's," closed last weekend, and his jerseys were selling for next to nothing.
