The Oklahoma City Thunder have removed MVP Kevin Durant from basketball activities, effectively ending his season.
As the world took in the last of the March Madness games on Thursday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder quietly dropped a bomb that shifts the landscape of the Western Conference playoff picture in a big way.
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Rumors began to pop up that Kevin Durant, the reigning MVP of the NBA, was going to be sidelined for the remainder of the season and the postseason with his foot injury that stunted his season form the start. That news was confirmed on Friday when the team announced that Durant was going to be removed from basketball activities which effectively ends his season.
It’s unclear when Durant will be back, but it looks like for now the Thunder have little interest in putting him on the floor before he is ready to be there.
This means that Russell Westbrook will continue to carry the team and be the leader that he’s longed to. Westbrook can play his way into a huge role with the Thunder — which is saying a lot since he’s a huge part of the team already but this is his chance to possibly overtake Durant as the face of the Thunder franchise.
Then again, the Thunder without Durant are not a team that can win the NBA Finals, and that’s the biggest problem with losing Durant for this extended period of time.
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