Kevin Durant’s return to Oklahoma City is already a little bit chilly.
The proprietor of a popular Oklahoma City restaurant Mahogany Prime Steakhouse says he rejected Durant’s attempts to privately rent out the entire place after Saturday night’s game against the Thunder.
Dave Osborn said it would have run Durant up to $35,000, but he simply elected not to out of respect for his regular patrons, some of whom are Oklahoma City players.
“I thought about it but I said, no I can’t do that, because I have Thunder players that come in after games,” Osborn said, via Royce Young of ESPN. “Thunder players come in, fans come in, so I just said, ‘I can’t do that to them.’ It wouldn’t be fair.”
Mahogany is a favorite location of Russell Westbrook, which was a factor in the decision.
“He comes in a lot after home games and he’s got his own room, and it’s always open,” Osborn said. “And I’ve told him that: This room is always open after every single home game.”
Durant even made clear that Thunder players would be welcome, but Osborn was unmoved.
“I told them, ‘I apologize, but I just can’t do it. I’ve got to stay true to the fans and the people that come in here because I do have a lot of people that come in after games,'” Osborn said.
There is precedent for this, though – the Warriors were denied the place during last season’s playoffs, when Durant was on the other side of the equation.
“I went into the room and told Kevin, ‘Hey Kevin, Golden State wanted to book here and I wouldn’t let ’em do it,” Osborn said, laughing. “And he was all excited about it.”
Osborn made clear that Durant is not unwelcome. He would be free to make a reservation, but renting the entire restaurant is not an option.
For what it’s worth, Durant’s agent, Rich Kleiman, denied that Durant had tried to rent the place out.
False https://t.co/LyGK3LcSxm
— Rich Kleiman (@richkleiman) February 11, 2017
Oklahoma City is a bit of a circus right now. Stories like this are probably fairly commonplace, though it doesn’t seem that there’s any explicit motivation to spite Durant here.
