This is basketball history…pure and simple. This is the side of Westbrook you forget at times when he’s very humble about his place in basketball.
This is the kid who got scratched from an elite high school camp in Atlanta and his coach had to do some talking to get him in the camp. This is the player who had to wait for a spot to open up at UCLA before he got his scholarship. This side of Westbrook is the one I personally love because when you take the totality of his journey from there to here it is truly a remarkable journey in this era of NBA basketball. I love this Westbrook, the peacock Wild Thing Westbrook not as much. Westbrook also took full responsibility for the ending in Boston—which is exactly what he should have done. Good for Russell Westbrook.
Now…having written all that I’d like to see Russell Westbrook call Kevin Durant and personally invite him to Nick’s jersey ceremony and help these Oklahoma City fans get over this hurdle with Durant. It would make for a helluva chapter in my book, besides—it’s the right thing to do from a human standpoint. I would say from a personal view…patience, decency, and forgiveness are the things you really learn more at the age of fifty than thirty, but I think the Westbrook I like has all this inside of him. Yes, at times you want to strangle him, but he always pulls it back together and acts beyond his years off the court.
Keep in mind, if Paul George does end up winning the MVP then this will be the third regular season MVP in a ten year period of which Russell Westbrook played a major part in three different players winning the award. That’s something to think about. Cousy only did this with Bill Russell with each winning an award. Magic did this with himself and Kareem. Oscar did it with himself and then with Kareem in Milwaukee. Steph and Durant have neither won a regular season MVP since they’ve been together. Kyrie in regular season play was only a part of LeBron’s MVPs. Karl Malone won a regular season MVP, but Stockton never did. I hope all these fans in Oklahoma City can take a break from hating Durant and be sure and take in all of this NBA history. For a junkie like me…it’s fascinating.