Russell Westbrook's Unreported Resurgence
You would not know this from following many of the mainstream NBA media outlets, but 37 year old Russell Westbrook is having an excellent, resurgent season following an offseason during which it appears that the only offer he received was a non-guaranteed, one year veteran minimum deal from the Sacramento Kings; that is the type of contract given to a fringe player whose ability to perform as a rotation player at the NBA level is questionable at best, not to a future Hall of Famer who is still a very good player.
Westbrook is averaging 14.0 ppg, 7.2 apg, and 6.8 rpg in 25 games this season, including 15.1 ppg, 7.7 apg, and 7.6 rpg in 19 starts. It is not his fault that Sacramento's highest paid and highest profile players are terminally allergic to playing good defense, nor is it his fault that the Kings appear to be outmatched at coach more often than not in the wake of last season's decision to fire two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown.
Instead of stories documenting how well the unwanted Westbrook is playing at this advanced stage of his career, we are inundated with hot takes about how terrible it is that the L.A. Clippers cut the disgruntled and unproductive Chris Paul.
Westbrook being overlooked and underrated is nothing new. In 2014, I discussed Westbrook's ascent to MVP caliber status and noted that he seemed poised to inherit Kobe Bryant's dual status as "best guard in the NBA and vastly underrated superstar." Westbrook has been very underrated for most of his NBA career, with the exception of the 2016-17 season, when the voters correctly selected him as the regular season MVP after he became the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple double for an entire season. Westbrook averaged a triple double in each of the next two seasons, but he slipped to fifth and then 10th in MVP voting. By the time that Westbrook averaged a triple double in a season for the fourth time (2020-2021), he was no longer a top 10 MVP finisher, an All-NBA Team member, or even an All-Star. Only two other players have averaged a triple double in a season: Oscar Robertson (1961-62) and Nikola Jokic (2024-25). In his triple double season, Robertson finished third in MVP voting (behind fellow Pantheon members Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain), earned an All-NBA First Team selection, and made the All-Star team, while Jokic finished second in MVP voting, earned All-NBA First Team honors, and made the All-Star team in his triple double season. Robertson averaged an aggregate triple double during the first five seasons of his NBA career, and in that time span he never finished lower than fifth in MVP voting while making the All-NBA First Team and the All-Star team in each of those seasons.
Media members have created a distorted narrative in which triple doubles are significant unless they are posted by Russell Westbrook. Westbrook became the all-time triple double leader in 2021, and he has normalized all-around greatness to the extent that he is punished for being a statistical unicorn. Every other NBA player who has a unique form of greatness is praised for that uniqueness--think of Stephen Curry's record-breaking three point shooting--but Westbrook's greatness is not only dismissed; it is often mocked.
Labels: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Nikola Jokic, Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento Kings
posted by David Friedman @ 7:07 PM
1 Comments:
One of the first things I thought of when the Chris Paul fiasco started was how would the media react if the current roles of Paul and Westbrook were reversed, if Sacramento had abruptly severed ties with Westbrook due to conduct that was deemed “detrimental” and if Paul was delivering the type of production that Westbrook currently is.
The media would refer to Paul as a “Point God” who doesn’t have enough help while the usual Westbrook bashing would go into a furious hyperdrive with the painfully unoriginal and played out “Westbrick” moniker being bashed into the ground beyond recognition.
It’s unfortunate how effective narratives are at convincing people of something that simply doesn’t align with reality but that’s just life being life. Westbrook’s salary is couch change compared to the salaries of most point guards in the league but Westbrook doesn’t seem to care as long as he gets to play basketball.
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