In my own NBA basketball mind/heart I’ve been trying decide where my loyalty will be this coming NBA season. It’s complex for me in that I don’t love my hometown Thunder, but I don’t hate them either.
Fact of the matter is….I love their players. I love Shai. There’s not one player on the Thunder roster I don’t like. So it’s not like I’ve got a hardon against the Thunder… it’s just that I’ve moved on from a team twenty minutes from my front door which is being picked by quite a few people to play the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals this coming season.
The analogy would be like when I was young and single and somewhat immature there was this beautiful young woman and we met and had sex. Then we had a series of shallow conversation and I just decided the sex didn’t warrant me having to hang around and continue with the conversation. That’s where I’m at with the Thunder. I’ve moved on. Sam Presti, Royce Young, and Little Nick Gallo do not tittilate MJ’s interest. They bore me to death with their homery brand even though they may indeed have the best team in the Western Conference.
So there’s that…an honest explanation of my feelings about this upcoming Western Conference NBA season.
So probably my passion this season will go in this order…1 Denver Nuggets, 2 Golden State Warriors, and 3 OKC Thunder. But if OKC were to emerge and make the NBA Finals vs. the Boston Celtics then I would clearly be rooting for the Thunder while praying it wasn’t Donald Trump hosting them for the White House congratulatory welcome.
Now…Russell Westbrook. This Dan Patrick podcast on Russell’s legacy is pretty much spot on as far as I’m concerned.
To me Russell’s legacy is this… he will go down as a great NBA regular season player who has amassed some gaudy stats in games against bad to midling teams in regular season play which for the most part don’t mean all that much.
Post season is where it’s at as far as establishing a legacy. What a player does in any sport at the goal acheiving portion of the season should define their legacy.
Think about this…Russell to date has played with Kevin Durant, James Harden (twice), Bradley Beal, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George (twice) and only made it to a conference final or an NBA Final with one of these players.
That player would be Kevin Durant. Four times Kevin carried Russell Westbrook on his back and made it to the Western Conference Finals. One time, in 2012, Cupcake, as he’s still called in Oklahoma City by their basketball ‘intuitive’ fanbase…. carried Russell to the NBA Finals opposite the Miami Heat.
The legacy Russell has defined by his erratic play is Kevin Durant’s, not his own. For Kevin Durant to carry a team to the heights he did in OKC speaks volumes as to Kevin’s greatness…not Russell’s.
But despite what I’ve just written…I like Russell Westbrook and I’m praying for him to take this opportunity with Denver and redefine his legacy. I’m fervently praying Russell can clean up his game and give Mike Malone 18-20 minutes a game of smart, winning, consistent basketball as a role player off the bench.
I love Russell. My OU boy Austin Reaves said Russell was the best teammate he had when he made the LA Lakers as a free agent his rookie season. He said Russell took him under his wing so to speak. Knowing this…how can I not love Russell Westbrook?
What Russell primarily needs to do is QUIT shooting three point shots because he sucks at this skill as far as NBA players go. Last season while playing for the LA Clippers..Russell did not shoot 30% from any spot on the floor along the three point arc. Not even from either baseline which is usually the easiest location to make three point shots.
Denver desperately needs Russell Westbrook to be a level, mature, heady player since both Bruce Brown and Kentavius Caldwell-Pope have moved on since the Denver championship season. Christian Braun is now the fifth starter and he needs to fill KCP’s minutes.
Mike Malone can only hope Russell, Julian Strawther, Dario Sarcic, and Peyton Watson can give him some semblance of a bench this upcoming season.
So I’m genuinely hoping Russell can make the most of this opportunity to re-write his own legacy.
Good luck and God bless, Russell.
Mike J