I wake up bleary-eyed. I haven’t even properly opened my eyes yet, and I’m already reaching for my phone.
First stop – NBA.com.
Let’s see what Westbrook did.
That was a pretty typical morning for an NBA fan in Europe in the spring of 2017. At least for those who hadn’t stayed up all night watching the games.
Unlike the EuroLeague, the NBA has always been built around individual stars. It’s perfectly normal for someone to root “for LeBron,” and by extension, for whichever team James happens to play for.
That’s how Russell Westbrook was followed in 2017.
You’d open the box score and barely even register the final score before looking for one thing:
Did Russ get another triple-double?
With the emergence of Nikola Jokić and the way basketball has changed, averaging a triple-double no longer feels quite as otherworldly as it once did.
Mostly because Jokić has somehow made the extraordinary feel almost routine.
Back then, though, Westbrook’s pursuit was something you followed night after night.
A Season Like No Other
It came in the season after a summer in which Russ felt betrayed. Kevin Durant had left for the Golden State Warriors – the same Warriors who had eliminated Oklahoma City from the playoffs after the Thunder blew a 3-1 series lead.
Not that Westbrook had ever needed extra fuel.
He always had plenty.
But that season, he played with a different kind of defiance.
Like a bulldozer.
By the end of it, Westbrook was averaging 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists.
His Thunder finished sixth in the Western Conference.
In many ways, that season was the perfect illustration of how Westbrook would be viewed throughout his career.
Very few people ever had a moderate opinion about him. There was no middle ground.
You either loved him or you questioned everything about him.
Stat-Padder or MVP?
One side pointed to the sheer absurdity of the numbers. The other clipped possessions where Steven Adams boxed out so Westbrook could swoop in for the rebound.
Stat-padder!
One side argued that almost nobody could have won that many games with that roster. The other insisted you couldn’t give the MVP award to a player whose team finished sixth in the West.
Some loved him because he would never back down from anyone or fear anything on a basketball court. Because he possessed the kind of self-confidence the rest of us could only dream of having.
Give a team even one-tenth of Westbrook’s belief in himself, and that team instantly becomes better.
Others saw the same qualities and found recklessness, arrogance, even something performative about them.
“You hear all kinds of things about him, but when you actually meet him, you realize he’s a really nice, pleasant person,” Daryl Morey once said.
He Would Run Through a Wall
Some admired the fact that he would run through a wall for his team. That he never took a possession off. That he could defend with the intensity of a role player despite carrying the burden of a franchise star.
Others pointed to his broken jumper and those stretches when he seemed blind to his teammates, forcing one-on-one possession after one-on-one possession.
See? Selfish.
Davis Bertans, who spent a season alongside Westbrook, saw it differently.
“He was one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. He helped everyone. We didn’t play the same position, but I could see how much winning mattered to him. From the outside, his game could sometimes look individualistic, but it all came from his desire to win every game and fight for every ball,” Bertans told Sport klub.
That duality followed Russell Westbrook throughout the career of one of the greatest athletes basketball has ever seen.
And now – after 18 seasons, 1,436 games, 209 triple-doubles, an MVP award, nine All-Star appearances, two scoring titles, three assists titles and nine All-NBA selections – now…
Now both sides are sad to see him go.
Sometimes only the end gives us enough distance to look back with a little perspective.
He Was Emotion in Motion
Put aside all the arguments about his strengths and weaknesses. Put aside the records, the wins and the losses.
Russell Westbrook played basketball with his heart.
Russell Westbrook loved basketball – loved the ball itself – the way a game like this deserves to be loved.
Russell Westbrook was never elegance in motion, especially when he played alongside the almost weightless Kevin Durant.
But he was emotion in motion.
That’s why, even though it has been clear for years that he is no longer the player he once was, Westbrook’s decision to retire still came as a surprise to so many.
Personally, after all the speculation in recent days, a little part of me started hoping we might actually get to see Russ on a EuroLeague court.
Now that would have been something to see.
When he turns 38 in November, Russell Westbrook will no longer be a professional basketball player.
But he won’t leave basketball.
On that, at least, I think we can all agree.
Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end.
You had to be there. And now it’s over. pic.twitter.com/6YoOW8WyIV
— Russell Westbrook (@russwest44) August 12, 2026
