Grantland's Jalen Rose predicts Kevin Durant to Houston, Russell Westbrook to L.A.; Durant responds

Today, Grantland's Jalen Rose made a bold prediction regarding Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Watch it above.

If you can't watch it now, it boils down to this. When Durant and Westbrook's respective contracts expire, Rose predicts that:

- Durant will go to Houston and join James Harden and Dwight Howard.

- Westbrook will go to Los Angeles and team up with his college teammate Kevin Love.

Since news like this travels around the world faster than I can put in my monocle, word got back to Durant pretty quickly. Darnell Mayberry reports:

Mayberry: Did you hear what Jalen Rose said about the Houston thing?

Durant: Yep.

Mayberry: Do you have any thoughts on that?

Durant: Nah, I'm here for the Thunder (laughs). I mean, that's all I can say. I'm not thinking far down the line at all. It's about today. Today we got better against the Chicago Bulls. I can't tell the future. I can't speak on that. That's his opinion. I'm just going to keep playing for the Thunder. I love playing here.

Mayberry: People probably will continue to say that for the next three years.

Durant: Unfortunately.

Mayberry: How do you deal with that?

Durant: I mean, just let them know I'm not thinking that far down the line, I guess. I mean, I love my teammates. I love where I live. I love playing for this organization. So I'm just taking it a day at a time.

***

My personal thought on the matter. Durant has never wavered in his desire to play in OKC, even though he's been asked countless times and we've read into everything imaginable. Westbrook has consistently endorsed the city. They both have proved loyal every step of the way.

That said...life happens.

When I finished college and started my career, I was incredibly loyal to my first company. I loved everything about it and saw myself building a long career there. I was 21 at the time. However, at age 26 I got married. My priorities and desires changed as my life changed. With a wife and later children, my loyalties shifted. In the process, I realized that it is a far better thing to be loyal to your spouse, your children, and your close friends than the place you work. The former has much stronger lasting power and fulfillment than the latter.

Durant just turned 25. Westbrook is 24. Durant just got engaged. Westbrook has a girlfriend. In 2016 as they're closer to age 30 than their college years, life will look different than it does today. Our desires, interests, and responsibilities can and will undergo radical shifts. If one or both players decide to move on, it is difficult for me, a person who has lived through those years, to say that it is unfair or disloyal. It is just life unfolding the way it does. Rose's prediction hurts my basketball sensibilities, but from a life perspective, it is quite reasonable.

Would I be sad if one or both of those predictions come true? Of course. Would I understand? Yeah, I would. All the more reason to live in the present and enjoy what we are watching unfold.