You can never go home again. And I guess you can't eat there, either.
Kevin Durant wanted to have a meal at one of the nicer steakhouses in Oklahoma City during his stay Saturday night after the Warriors' game against the Thunder. Unfortunately, the proprietor wasn't having it for the man who abandoned OKC last July. From ESPN's Royce Young:
Popular Oklahoma City restaurant Mahogany Prime Steakhouse turned down a request by Kevin Durant's representatives to rent out the entire restaurant following the Warriors' game Saturday night against the Thunder, according to proprietor Dave Osborn.
Osborn, who oversees Mahogany's downtown location, said Durant's reps called "three or four weeks ago" to rent out the entire restaurant for the Warriors organization after the game.According to Osborn, the haul would have been between $30,000 to $35,000.
"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. "Thunder players come in, fans come in, so I just said, 'I can't do that to them.' It wouldn't be fair."
Source: Oklahoma City restaurant says no to Kevin Durant request.
Osborn goes on to say that Durant's representatives said that OKC players could be invited. Osborn still declined.
A representative for Durant called the claim "false" on Friday night when it was first reported, but this seems like a pretty substantial account of a request.
It's petty, sure, but you can also see it from a business perspective. You want to be loyal to some of your best customers, and it's clear that the Thunder still have some hard feelings about how Durant left OKC. So the owner protects his interests and picks up some publicity as well. Somehow it seems likely that Durant will still have a good meal on Saturday night, especially if he and the Warriors do what they've done in the prior two meetings against the Thunder and beat them by double digits in dominant fashion.
