What, you thought they weren’t gonna boo Kevin Durant? Of course they were gonna boo him, they had every right to. It’s not a matter of morality or perspective, Durant was callous to leave the team in the manner that he did but it’s also his decision – it was well within the rules and he didn’t owe anybody anything. He remains a legend of the Oklahoma City Thunder and one day, long from now, he’ll have his jersey hanging in the rafters at Chesapeake Arena.

None of that’s why they get to boo him though. The reason KD returned to OKC to a chorus of jeers and cupcakes is something much simpler than any of that: it’s fun.

Hell yeah it is. It’s so much fun. An entire fanbase finding a unanimous villain to hate upon doesn’t happen all that often, you gotta savour that, mate. You get to put away the petty infighting that lingers in any crowd (but HE should be starting, not HIM!) and rediscover the common ground that triggered all those jersey sales, crowds don’t normally breathe as one like that until the playoffs and that atmosphere is what it’s all about. Forget about Westbrook’s usage rate, forget about potential trades, forget about the turnover rate, forget about the three point percentages… on this rare occasion every last person in the arena had a shared purpose: to make life slightly awkward for a multi-million dollar NBA star for a couple of hours.

Come on, no arguments about showing respect here – these are remarkably small stakes. Lives aren’t threatened when Kevin Durant sees a cupcake sign, even feelings are only marginally hurt. It’s just a game of basketball. (Though tipping off six days since the NFL season ended it also happened to be the biggest American sporting event on the calendar that week). Some of the hype is manufactured and some of it isn’t but what we all seem to forget is that this stuff is really enjoyable. Debating about sports is fun. Getting passionate about things that won’t end in bloodshed is fun. Irrationally investing in the perceived rivalries of former teammates is fun.

No big deal. Nobody gets hurt. Just fun.

And the game itself was better for it, every time either Westbrook or Durant had the ball in their hands it was loud, like LOUD. Cheers for one and boos for the other. Enough to bring an atmosphere to this mid-season contest that rivalled the noise those two lads once heard playing together in the playoff games of years gone by. The people of Oklahoma City did not disappoint and there were signs and custom shirts and even a few costumes. When Durant found his way to the free throw line he was met with raucous chants of: “CUPCAKE, CUPCAKE, CUPCAKE!”

The cupcake is the patron delicacy of this feud (and don’t say it ain’t a feud either, there’s clearly some disdain out there and while they’ll kiss and make up one day… that day hasn’t come yet – maybe wait ‘til they’re on the same team at All Stars next week). It all started back when the pair were nothing but rising talents in their early days, living under the tutelage of one Kendrick Perkins. The self-proclaimed Silverback was a notoriously tough teammate and if you slacked off in training he called you cupcake. It became a running joke between Russ and KD back in happier days until it was reclaimed in an all-time moment of social media shade when Westbrook instagrammed an unexplained pic of a cupcake upon learning of Durant’s defection to Golden State.

More evidence towards the ‘all in good fun’ brigade: both Steph Curry and Draymond Green turned up to their postgame press scrums wearing some baked goods:

The first time that Durant found himself guarding Westbrook we got a glimpse of something we’d waited all season to see. The dramas enacted in the press are one thing but here they were in their main element going head to head, no hiding the truth any longer. Durant checked him a couple of times, keeping the lad as tightly covered as he could. Russ jumped back for space and Sabonis flipped him the ball. As Westbrook stood still with his dribble, signalling the play back near the midfield logo, the crowd began to rise to their feet, ticket holder by ticket holder. This was what they’d come to see. Suddenly Steven Adams comes sprinting over and sets a hard screen on Durant. JaVale McGee follows him out to the edge and Westbrook hits Adams on the roll. Adams then lobs one in from about ten feet and that was that.

The game wasn’t really about the result, that much was close to a foregone conclusion. For the most part the players played hard, the fans were loud and the Warriors were winning. Both Durant and Westbrook started laying it in during the second but the difference was that Durant had help. By half-time the lead was at 23 points and the Dubs don’t lose too many from there.

And yet in the third things got feisty. Sliding around another Adams screen with Durant guarding him, Westbrook swung one over to Victor Oladipo who was good from three. Closed the score differential all the way back to… 18 points. But the real focus was on Russ and KD, jawing away as they wandered over to their respective benches for a timeout called by Steve Kerr. More words led to more words and a few hand gestures went cutting through the air. Enes Kanter ran over to say his bit in his dress suit as other players tried to calm them down. But they were already calm, it was all just words.

A couple of minutes later Andre Roberson fouled Durant on his way to the basket. It wasn’t a hard foul but Durant fell hard, catching his leg on the hoop stanchion. Walking back towards the foul line, Durant seemed to say something and Roberson yapped back. Next thing they were forehead to forehead and the refs were dragging them apart.

Westbrook scored 47 points with 11 rebounds and 8 assists. He shot 14/26 from the field but had 11 turnovers. Durant scored 34 points with 9 rebounds and 3 assists shooting 12/21. The Warriors won the game by 26 points. There was a moment in the fourth where Russ went diving over KD for a loose ball but it was nothing more than a hustle play, no dramas.

Afterwards Kevin Durant said he thought the crowd woulda been louder. Both he and Draymond Green referred to the trash talking and the rivalries and the competitiveness as “fun”. Both of them used that same word to describe the mischief we’d witnessed.

Russell Westbrook didn’t, but then his team had just lost.