Russell Westbrook Deserves Better Than This
For the first time since 2008, the NBA season might tip off without Russell Westbrook. After spending a year with the Denver Nuggets that saw him develop a reliable partnership with superstar Nikola Jokic, the mercurial point guard decided to opt out of his contract this summer, purportedly due to the Nuggets’ lack of a plan for him going forward. Given his stature in the league and his solid play in Denver, Russ likely expected to find other suitors. Instead, we’re less than a week out from tipoff and Westbrook remains a free agent.
In his prime, watching Westbrook charge down the court felt like watching a Mack truck plow into minivans, that rare hooper whose dunks seemed like they’d separate rim from backboard. He averaged a triple-double three seasons in a row in Oklahoma City and ran the feat back a fourth time with the Wizards during the 2020-2021 season. Russ was a two-time scoring champion, an MVP, and a nine-time All-Star. Those who called his style of play selfish were quick to forget that he led the league in assists in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
It feels like I’m writing a eulogy. It shouldn’t. Russell Westbrook isn’t dead, nor has he officially retired or suffered any sort of career-ending injury. He’s 36 years old—hardly a spring chicken but far from the typical sell-by date for star players. He’s not injury-prone, and while he’s no longer averaging a triple-double, he still has plenty to contribute to an NBA team. Westbrook would be the first to admit he’s not a first option anymore; in fact, he did as much during his tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2023-24. Upon realizing the four-man setup of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and himself wasn’t gelling like it should, he offered to come off of the bench and lead the second unit. In his 2024-25 campaign with the Nuggets, he proved a killer set-up man for Nikola Jokic as Jamal Murray endeavored to return from injury.
Over the years, Westbrook has become a controversial figure and a regular punching bag of the NBA media. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it started, but the Russ slander ran especially hot during his admittedly disastrous tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2021 to 2023. The team hoped he could complete a Big Three alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Long story short: It didn’t work, which came as little surprise to any real ball knowers. Westbrook’s heliocentric approach always seemed like an ill fit for a Lakers lineup that needed him to be a third option. It was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved: Westbrook was stuck floundering in a system ill-suited for his style of play, while the Lakers burned through a season and a half of late-career LeBron with nothing to show for it. His reputation amongst casual NBA viewers and Lakers fans—two groups that, in this writer’s somewhat biased opinion, share significant overlap—has never quite recovered, despite his on-court efforts improving considerably once he left the franchise.
Westbrook is far from immune to criticism, of course, and he didn’t leave Denver on the best note. After opening strong in the Nuggets’ second-round series against the eventual champion Thunder, he bottomed out in indefensible fashion, averaging 21% from the 3-point line and only managing six points in a Game 7 drubbing. His big personality can, at times, be grating on and off the court and he does struggle to fit into more democratic systems of play. Perhaps the biggest knock on late-career Russ is that he’s streaky. This is a guy who dropped 29 on the Thunder in the regular season, and then got held to single-digits against them during the playoffs more than once. That same player threw up a measly 5 points against the Clippers in December, only to be the deciding factor that secured the Nuggets the win against them in a seven-game playoff series. Performances like the latter are why GMs pay players—but they need to know they’re going to be getting what they’re paying for.
