Russell Westbrook's trade request from the Houston Rockets was leaked to the media before the NBA world found out that James Harden was looking to get traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

However, Westbrook may have heard about Harden's Nets plan before everyone else.

According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Westbrook requested a trade from the Rockets because he privately knew Harden was looking to create a superteam on the Nets with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

“I heard it a number of days ago,” Windhorst said on The Lowe Post of Harden's interest in the Nets, via RealGM. “Guess who else heard it? Russell Westbrook. So I think Westbrook, who is kind of the forgotten man here, I think he goes in and is like, ‘You're not asking for a trade. I'm asking for a trade.'

“And so I think in the postmortem, it might have been Harden who moved first.”

Multiple reports have stated that James Harden really wants to play on the Nets so he can compete for a championship. Russell Westbrook, meanwhile, wants to play on a team where he's the No. 1 option on offense again so he can have the ball in his hands more.

It's going to be fascinating to see how this all plays out, but it appears the Rockets are going to lose two former MVPs in the same offseason.

Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists for the Rockets in 2019-20. Harden, meanwhile, put up 34.3 points, 6.6 boards and 7.5 assists.