When Russell Westbrook had dinner with Kevin Durant a week before free agency opened in the summer of 2016, he asked Durant what he could do differently, how his game should evolve, how he could change.
Their partnership was wonderfully successful on the floor, and built on mutual respect off it, but with the rocky patches screaming louder than the smooth ones, Westbrook understood an evolution was going to be necessary for Durant to buy back in.
Durant left, and Westbrook did change -- because he had to. He produced one of the most physically and mentally taxing seasons in NBA history, dominating the record book and setting a record for usage rate.