A tip of the cap to Russell Westbrook

After 18 NBA seasons, Russell Westbrook has announced his retirement. One of the most athletic players to ever touch a basketball, Westbrook is a lock to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. The 2017 MVP was a 9x All-Star, 9x All-NBA and is top 5 all-time in assists, top 15 all-time in points and steals. The end of his career was not always pretty but Russell Westbrook will be remembered as an all-time great player.

Drafted in 2008, Westbrook teamed up with Kevin Durant on the Oklahoma City Thunder to make one of the most deadly duos in the league from 2008-2016. In those years, Oklahoma City went to the 2012 NBA Finals and also made the Conference Finals in 2014 and 2016. 2012 saw the Thunder come up short to the Heat in 5 games, 2014 saw the Thunder come up short to the Spurs in 6 games and 2016 saw the Thunder come up short to the Warriors in 7 games, after leading the series 3-1. 2012 was the deepest run and had James Harden on the team but I will always believe that the best team that era of Thunder basketball had was the 2016 team. Russ and KD were at the peak of their powers and while OKC lacked shooting, they were super athletic and with an elite offense as they were 2nd in offensive rating that season. Then, Durant departed to those very same Warriors and Westbrook began a new chapter of his career.

The KD-Russ Thunder were awesome. A Westbrook injury in 2013 and a Durant injury in 2015 derailed those seasons but from 2009-2016, the Oklahoma City Thunder were always in the mix. No, they didn’t win the title but not every team, not every duo and not every player wins a championship. It is really hard to win the championship, you need a lot of things to go your way and the Thunder just never broke through. They would have continued to be awesome if Durant didn’t leave in 2016 but he did. That set up Westbrook to show the world just how good he was during the 2016-17 season.

In 2017, Russell Westbrook became the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double. He averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game as he dragged the Thunder to 47 wins and the 6th seed in the Western Conference. I think one of the most important things about this season was that Westbrook played in 81 games, only missing the 2nd to last game of the season. That is what defined Westbrook for his career, he played every single night and he played hard every single night. The Thunder were bad that season, whose 2nd best player was either Steven Adams or pre-Indiana breakout Victor Oladipo but Westbrook had them as a respectable team. He played every night and they won a lot of games. The next 2 seasons, the Thunder had Paul George on their team. All 3 post-Durant seasons lead to first round exits for the Thunder which lead to  Russ being traded to the Houston Rockets.

Russell Westbrook is very hard headed and very set in his ways. It is what made him great in Oklahoma City and it is why he became a journey man at the end of his career. He played for the Rockets, Wizards, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets and Kings over the last 7 seasons of his career, 6 teams in 7 seasons. He never won the championship he was looking for post Thunder years but that doesn’t take away from the career he had. With career averages of 20.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game, Westbrook is going to go into the Hall of Fame.

What made Russ so great was just how hard he played every night. If Russell Westbrook was on your team, his effort was never going to be the question. Many of his problems were exposed later in his career but that doesn’t change what a great player he was. He was on the NBA’s 75th anniversary team and I believe he is one of the 50 greatest players to ever play. His toughness, determination and stubbornness are what made him great (though his athleticism didn’t hurt). “Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end,” Westbrook wrote in his Twitter and Instagram captions on his retirement post on Wednesday. “You had to be there. And now it’s over.”  The end wasn’t pretty, I don’t think anyone wanted his career to end wearing number 18 for the Sacramento Kings, but neither was the beginning or middle. Nothing about Russell Westbrook’s career was pretty because that’s not who Russ is, that’s not what made Russ, Russ. So, no it wasn’t pretty but Russell Westbrook was a damn good basketball player and will be remembered as such.