You wouldn’t think Taylor Swift and Russell Westbrook hold much in common. She sings catchy pop songs, he dunks basketballs like he’s John Wick and they just murdered his dog.
Westbrook won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. It was well-deserved. Russ practically played basketball 1-on-5 every game and won many game. His effort was both Herculean and Sisyphean in nature. You could argue he didn’t uphold the foundation of basketball chemistry and philosophy, not being a necessary nurturing force to teammates, but that would make you boring. (If the MVP actually went to the player who earned the moniker of being most valuable, the award would go to LeBron James for the past five years.)
Anyways, following Westbrook’s win, the Oklahoma City Thunder tweeted out a congratulatory video for the player. The video included no one from the organization Westbrook plays for. Instead, it was a video from Taylor Swift, who has been hiding in self-imposed publicity and media exile this year. Westbrook was worthy of leaving her cave it appears.
.@taylorswift13 sings Russell’s praises! #0urMVP pic.twitter.com/5HgKeVrMsi
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 27, 2017
But this isn’t the first public displays of affection the two celebrities have had for one another. The two have been all too keen to shower each other with praise via social media.
2013: Westbrook sings T-Swift with his crutches
Russell Westbrook had a lot of down time in the summer of 2013. He’d suffered an ACL injury and was in recovery, meaning he had a lot of time to kill. That included jamming to Taylor Swift’s Red. In a Vine video (RIP Vine), Westbrook strummed his crutch like a guitar, quietly crooning along to Swift: “I’m pretty sure we almost broke out last night.”
2015: Russ loves “Bad Blood”
https://www.instagram.com/p/3ABgtwiiMI/
How do you know you really love a song? By blasting it in your car, singing along at the top of your lungs. How do you show you really love a song in the social media era? By blasting it in your car, singing along at the top of your lungs, and recording the scene. Check and check for Russ and “Bad Blood.” (Now Kevin Durant left the following year and they kind of maybe were getting along that year and if you were to diss a teammate publicly the last song you’d choose would be a T-Swift joint, but….was this a subtweet at KD???)
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Taylor appreciated the post.
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/601990735165038593
2015: Westbrook attends Swift concert at Staples Center
https://www.instagram.com/p/62fJXGiiIU/
Russ loved Swift’s 1989 tour as much as you did. He attended the concert in Los Angeles, showing off his excellent floor seats. His fandom apparently was limited to just attendance. No recorded moment of the two meeting up until this point.
2015: Westbrook Shares pregame ritual with Jimmy Kimmel
Russell Westbrook appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in September of that year. Walking onstage, the band played Swift’s “Shake It Off,” causing Kimmel to ask Russ about his Swift fandom. He replied that “Shake It Off” was “the best” and “her music is so catchy.” He also shared his pregame ritual of napping, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (wheat bread, toasted, cut in half only please), and calling his parents. Just adorable.
2016: Russ takes his love to Snapchat
Russell Westbrook from OKC Thunder jammin' to 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' on his snapchat today! pic.twitter.com/akuLXAdW1v
— Taylor Swift News 🩵 (@TSwiftNZ) August 26, 2016
Different year, different app. The old Westbrook showed his love on Vine and Instagram. But the new Westbrook filmed himself on Snapchat, singing along to “We Are Never Getting Back Together.”
2016: Westbrook AMA
That same year Russell Westbrook hosted an AMA on Reddit. He was asked various questions, revealing he enjoyed Orange is the New Black on Netflix and Goldeneye was his favorite video game. But it also showcased more Swift love. He shared that Taylor made the pregame playlist and he has “a lot of favorites of T.Swift.”
2017: Swift congratulates MVP win
.@taylorswift13 sings Russell’s praises! #0urMVP pic.twitter.com/5HgKeVrMsi
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 27, 2017
Now we’re back where we started. It might have taken Russell Westbrook achieving the highest individual honor an NBA player could earn, but he received his Swift shout-out in return.
