Russell being Russell, right to the end
THE HOME OFFICE, Okla. — In the three-minute, 30-second video serving to announce Russell Westbrook’s retirement from the NBA, at least that’s what I think it was, narrator Michael B.. Jordan began like so.
Every museum has a curator and every exhibit, they have a story. But some stories don’t need someone to tell them, they just speak for themselves. So, tonight, I’m not going to tell you what any of this means. I’m just going to show you.
And I’m going to ask him a few questions along the way. Not because I expect an answer, but because some things deserve to be asked.
It was at that moment I thought, yeah, he just won the best actor Oscar, appeared in “The Wire,” “Creed” and “Black Panther,” but now he’s like the rest of us who’ve spent portions of our working lives trying to get Russell Westbrook to answer our questions, and we didn’t expect them either.
It’s just a piece of his quite complicated legacy.
Along with Kevin Durant, he helped lead the original young Thunder to the NBA Finals.
After Durant departed hastily and with little class for Golden State, he became Mr. Thunder, signing long term (twice), putting together three consecutive triple-double seasons after it had not happened once in 53 years, winning an MVP for the first of them and leading the OKC to the playoffs each of them.
Never was he happier than the day he first inked up to make those things possible.
OKLAHOMA CITY — We are all capitalists and still there is no currency like appreciation.
So yeah, Russell Westbrook has 8.8 million additional reasons to be thrilled about his next year of basketball in Oklahoma City — and maybe more than a quarter billion over the next seven seasons should he choose to stick around for the very long haul — but all of that seemed less important than the adulation flowing every direction Thursday afternoon inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.
A scheduled press conference, what it really was, was a love-fest flowing every direction between Westbrook, the organization he works for and the fans that cheer them both.
Is there really any doubt that Oklahoma’s favorite son, should Westbrook remain longer than the two seasons his new contract guarantees, will be a Los Angelino who played two years of college basketball at UCLA?
“Me being able to come back is a true blessing,” Westbrook said. “There’s no place I’d rather be than Oklahoma City. You guys have kind of basically raised me.”
— “It’s only two years on paper, but Westbrook seems to be here to stay,” Aug. 4, 2016, The Norman Transcript, by Clay Horning
If, indeed, Westbrook’s done for good, he’ll have finished his career with 209 triple-doubles, more than anybody else, though Denver’s Nikola Jokic (198) is bound to pass him soon.
He’ll also exit with 10,351 assists, fifth all-time behind John Stockton, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and LeBron James; 27,176 points, 14th all time behind James, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlain, James Harden, Shaquille O’Neal, Carmelo Anthony, Moses Malone and Elvin Hayes; and 9,025 rebounds, 60th all time and first among point guards, 623 more than Kidd’s 8,402.
The best player to wear the Thunder uniform is Shai Gilgeous Alexander. But the player most able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and it’s not close, is Westbrook and always will be Westbrook.
He came right through the screen.
If you were in the crowd, and close, he may have burrowed into your soul.
Beyond the arena, he was a service-oriented prince and kind of still is.
He owned the city and because neither Bedlam entrant owned the whole state, Westbrook kind of owned that, too.
He was also horrendous to local media and semi-regularly shot his team out of games, leaving teammates and his coach to make excuses for him they knew not to be true.
Everybody can see it, everybody can feel it: Westbrook relishes the opportunity to do it himself, now, too much to let it pass. And the majority of the time, by taking that opportunity, he kills the Thunder’s opportunity.
It has happened twice this season, first against Boston, Oklahoma City’s fourth loss to begin the season, and Saturday.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan was asked specifically about Westbrook’s shot selection afterward.
“I’ll go back and look at the film,” he said. “A lot of them were catch and shoot.”
Except they weren’t.
Most came in those moments the entire arena sensed Westbrook’s temptation to do something ill-advised.
— “When things go sideways for OKC, Westbrook, denial is the name of the game,” Nov. 27, 2018, The Norman Transcript, by Clay Horning
Nonetheless, a more exciting player the league may never have seen.
My half-century-plus basketball brain goes to David Thompson, Julius Erving and George Gervin, the original did-you-see-that players, but they did not fly like Westbrook flew.
There’s Michael Jordan, of course, yet Westbrook clocked in faster, and if it made him reckless it only made him more exciting, too. And if Jordan was the real Superman, living in the air, Westbrook’s still the only player capable of running away from the other nine players on the court despite the requirement he dribble the ball.
Like it was a trick or something.
Maybe he’d play defense and maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d take good shots and maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d give you the time of day afterward and maybe he wouldn’t. But he was mesmerizing either way, turning in triple-doubles night after night.
Comps are difficult
Trae Young’s a highlight reel, yet not a winner.
Westbrook was far better than that.
You could question his choices, but not whether he cared.
Allen Iverson?
Who played harder and who had to do it all themselves? Sound familiar? Iverson, though, struggled with life. Westbrook suffers no such malady.
And none of them played the most impossible game in league history.
Just Westbrook.
OKLAHOMA CITY — For one half of the fourth quarter Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Thunder threatened another collapse that would have replaced all the other worst losses of the season with a new one.
In the second half of that same quarter, Russell Westbrook put the finishing touches on an individual performance that had not occurred in the NBA in 18,687 days.
Because it was on Feb. 2, 1968 that Wilt Chamberlain, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, registered the first 20-point, 20-rebound, 20-assist game in league history.
Nobody had done it since, until Westbrook grabbed his 20th board with 41 seconds remaining against the Lakers.
On the day Chamberlain did it, he registered 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists, playing all 48 minutes against Detroit.
On this day, Westbrook scored 20 points, dished 21 assists and grabbed 20 rebounds in 12 seconds short of 37 minutes.
“He can impact the game in a lot of different ways,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said.
Oh, yeah, Oklahoma City beat Los Angeles 119-103.
— “Hussle Westbrook,” April 3, 2019, The Norman Transcript, by Clay Horning
If he gets the statue, funny thing, three other professional athletes will have beaten him to it in Oklahoma City.
Take a lap around Bricktown Ballpark and you’ll find Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn and Johnny Bench waiting in bronze. Still, they did their damage in New York, Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
Westbrook did it here.
So, should he get it?
Look at this way.
For all that he did, he might deserve two. Also, for his need to play the hero, the poor decisions it led to that cost his team and his general postgame dickishness to others just doing their job, one should be taken away.
So sure.
Give the man his bronze.
The day it’s unveiled, we’ll all enjoy it and nobody more than the man himself.
Because there’s still no currency like appreciation, Russell Westbrook loves being the man and, on that wonderful day, I’ll bet you he answers Berry Tramel’s question, too.
If, that is, he’s really done.
At the end of that three-minute, 30-second video, after Jordan finished talking and Westbrook, gazing from a chair, said nothing, the screen went dark and these words appeared.
The greatest thing he left behind couldn’t fit inside a museum.
It never had to be said.
As though profound, as it tells us nothing.
Why not?
So many points, rebounds and assists.
Might as well commit one last turnover, too.
Russell being Russell.
Right to the end.