Monday night, to the shock of no one very few people, Russell Westbrook took home the 2016-17 NBA MVP Award:
The honor earned him an A-list shout-out from Taylor Swift, which seems cool (albeit corny), but NBA fans had some oddly strong reactions to it:
It also earned Westbrook praise from Kevin Durant, whose exodus from Oklahoma City to the Bay Area created a season-long storyline in the form of a feud after their pretty apparent acrimony played itself out in public.
Durant gave his ex-teammate a shout-out via a comment from his YouTube channel page. "Huge congrats to Russell Westbrook on MVP," he said. "That boy went out there and was a created player on [NBA] 2k all year, Fuckin balled out. Gotta respect it!"
The public admiration followed previous news that Durant and Westbrook were on speaking terms again after ex-teammate Kendrick Perkins brokered a call between the pair following the latter's breakage of the record for most triple-doubles in a season: