{"id":20845,"date":"2016-08-05T08:01:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T15:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/source-thunder-westbrook-agree-on-three-year-85-7m-deal\/"},"modified":"2016-08-05T08:01:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T15:01:39","slug":"source-thunder-westbrook-agree-on-three-year-85-7m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/source-thunder-westbrook-agree-on-three-year-85-7m-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Source: Thunder, Westbrook agree on three-year, $85.7M deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY<\/strong> \u2014 A month after Kevin Durant broke Oklahoma City\u2019s heart, Russell Westbrook has reaffirmed his desire to stay with the Thunder.<\/p>\n

The team confirmed Thursday that Westbrook had signed a contract extension. A person with direct knowledge of the terms said the two sides had agreed on a new three-year deal worth $85.7 million. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team did not release terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to extend my contract with the Thunder and continue to play with the only organization that I have played for and have loved being a part of since I was drafted into the NBA,\u201d Westbrook said in a statement released before a late afternoon news conference. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about moving forward with this group of guys and continuing to play in front of the best fans in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Westbrook is one of the top stars in the NBA and piled up 18 triple-doubles last season, tying Magic Johnson for the most in the last 30 years. The five-time All-Star averaged 23.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 10.4 assists last season as the Thunder reached the Western Conference finals, in which they lost in seven games to the Golden State Warriors after jumping to a 3-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

For his entire career, Westbrook had been paired with a fellow superstar in Durant and together they turned Oklahoma City into a perennial NBA title contender. The Thunder have reached the conference finals in four of the past six seasons, but advanced to the NBA Finals only once, falling to the Miami Heat in 2012.<\/p>\n

Durant became a free agent at season\u2019s end and announced on July 4 that he would sign with Golden State instead of staying with the Thunder and Westbrook.<\/p>\n

Westbrook\u2019s contract had been set to expire after next season, and after Durant\u2019s departure \u2014 which was unexpected by Thunder fans \u2014 rumors swirled about Westbrook\u2019s future. If things go poorly for Oklahoma City during the upcoming season, the length of Westbrook\u2019s new contract would seem to make him a more valuable trade piece.<\/p>\n

For now, both he and the Thunder seem to be going all in.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the Thunder organization and the entire state of Oklahoma I want to congratulate Russ and offer my sincere appreciation for not only his profound presence and skill as a player, but for his high character, personal integrity and extraordinary leadership,\u201d team owner Clay Bennett said.<\/p>\n

General manager Sam Presti said Westbrook \u201cpersonifies many of the traits that are synonymous with Oklahoma and Oklahomans. We are excited that Russell has chosen to continue to build the legacy of the Thunder with us as we move forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Rio de Janeiro, where he is part of the U.S. men\u2019s Olympic team, Durant said he wouldn\u2019t immediately be reaching out to Westbrook to discuss his decision to stay in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, that\u2019s a touchy deal,\u201d Durant said. \u201cAt some point, we\u2019ll sit down and talk. But I don\u2019t know when.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was happy for Westbrook, Durant said he was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to see any player in this league do whatever they want to do,\u201d Durant said. \u201cIt\u2019s good for him, man. It\u2019s good for his family. It\u2019s good for the people in Oklahoma City that love to watch him play and love to have him on their team. So I\u2019ve got nothing but positive energy and vibes for everybody. I\u2019ve got no beef with anybody. There\u2019s no ill will with anybody. If he did what he wanted to do, that\u2019s better. That\u2019s great for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even without Durant, the Thunder have talent to go with Westbrook. Steven Adams showed during the playoffs that he rapidly is moving up the ranks of NBA centers, and another post player, Enes Kanter, finished third in voting for the NBA\u2019s Sixth Man of the Year award last season.<\/p>\n

A draft-night deal with the Orlando Magic, in which the Thunder lost Serge Ibaka, brought in sharpshooting guard Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis – who the Magic selected with the 11th pick – along with forward Ersan Ilyasova. Point guard Cameron Payne, a 2015 lottery pick entering his second season, was one of the top players in the NBA Summer League in Orlando this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 A month after Kevin Durant broke Oklahoma City\u2019s heart, Russell Westbrook has reaffirmed his desire to stay with the Thunder. The team confirmed Thursday that Westbrook had signed a contract extension. A person with direct knowledge of the terms said the two sides had agreed on a new three-year deal worth $85.7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20845"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}