Russell Westbrook Extends His Career Triple Double Record While Setting Career Rebounding Record for Guards
On Wednesday night, Russell Westbrook extended his NBA career triple double record by notching his 205th regular season triple double as his Sacramento Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors, 121-116. Westbrook scored 23 points on 9-13 field goal shooting while grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds and dishing for a game-high 10 assists. Westbrook's new teammate Malik Monk is thrilled by Westbrook's contributions, particularly since Westbrook became a starter for the Kings: "We needed it bad. Especially in the starting unit. I feel like for
the last few years, we've been starting games pretty bad. With him going
to the starting unit, it brings more oomph, more energy."
Westbrook now has 8734 career regular season rebounds, surpassing Jason Kidd (8725) to become the top rebounding guard in ABA/NBA history. Westbrook ranks 71st overall in career regular season rebounds, ahead of many Hall of Fame centers/power forwards, including Spencer Haywood, Willis Reed, Chris Webber, and Bob McAdoo. Contrary to what Westbrook's critics assert, his rebounds are not "stolen."
This season, Westbrook--who will turn 37 on November 12--is averaging
15.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 5.6 apg, and 1.4 spg with shooting splits of
.468/.432/.727 while starting four out of eight games. Westbrook signed a non-guaranteed veteran minimum one year deal for $3.6 million to join the Kings. Per HoopsHype, Westbrook's 2025 contract is tied for 299th in the NBA.
Regardless of what Dave "Vampire" McMenamin and other media members say to trash Westbrook's reputation, no rational person believes that Westbrook deserves to be among the lowest paid NBA players--but it is fascinating to see how perception becomes reality, and how media-driven narratives may affect a player's market value. I am not surprised at how poorly many media members treat Westbrook, because in 2014 I predicted that Westbrook would inherit Kobe Bryant's mantle as both the NBA's best guard and a "vastly underrated superstar." Westbrook is no longer a superstar, but he was the NBA's best guard and a vastly underrated superstar during his prime, and his contributions are consistently belittled to this day.
Westbrook plays hard, which should be a given for professional athletes but is often not the case. He teamed with Kevin Durant to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals, and to Western Conference Finals appearances in three other seasons. After Durant fled the Thunder to join the stacked Golden State Warriors in 2016, Westbrook did not pout and he did not demand a trade; he led the Thunder to three straight playoff appearances before being traded to Houston in 2019. Westbrook should get a special award for averaging a triple double while leading the Washington "Wheeze-hards" to the 2021 playoffs, the team's only postseason appearance between 2018 and 2025.
Some players seem to be in the NBA just for the money and the fame, but Westbrook seems to love not just playing basketball but competing as hard as he can for as long as he can.
Labels: Golden State Warriors, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento Kings
posted by David Friedman @ 5:06 PM
How Significant is the NBA Cup?
The third annual NBA Cup began with eight games on Friday October 31, and will continue until a champion is crowned on Tuesday December 16. The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the 2024 NBA Cup, and the L.A. Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers 123-109 to win the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023. Most of this year's NBA Cup games will be played on Friday nights. All NBA Cup games also count in the regular season standings except for the championship game, which paradoxically is not classified as a regular season game or as a playoff game.
In a two year sample size, winning the NBA Cup has not correlated with winning the the NBA title. Milwaukee lost to Indiana in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, and the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. The losers of the NBA Cup championship game have fared better in the NBA playoffs than the winners, with Oklahoma City capturing the 2025 NBA title and Indiana reaching the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals a year before losing to Oklahoma City in the 2025 NBA Finals.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver openly dreamed for many years about creating an in-season tournament modeled after the in-season tournaments that already exist in other sports leagues around the world. He believes that such an in-season tournament heightens fan interest and lessens the incentive to tank--and he no doubt also believes that an in-season tournament provides revenue generating opportunities for the league.
There is little doubt that the league is using the NBA Cup to create revenue generating opportunities through sponsorships and through promotion by the league's media partners, but the other supposed advantages of the NBA Cup are difficult to quantify. There is not a direct, obvious way to measure the extent to which fan interest is impacted by the NBA Cup; did fans attend a particular game because it was an NBA Cup game or because they like one of the teams or because that game happened when they had enough time or money to go to a game?
The race to the bottom that happened in both 2023 and 2024--and will almost certainly happen this season as well--belies the notion that the NBA Cup curbs tanking; it made no sense to assume that--even if every team cared a lot about winning the NBA Cup--the existence of an in-season tournament would have an impact on teams happily losing for most of the season.
It will be interesting to see how the NBA Cup is viewed in 10 years. The Lakers raised a banner to commemorate their 2023 NBA Cup title, and the Bucks raised a banner in honor of their 2024 NBA Cup title, but it is difficult to imagine legendary players of the past such as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant putting much stock in a banner celebrating anything other than an NBA title. How important can the NBA Cup championship game be if the statistics are not counted as either part of the regular season or the playoffs? The NBA Cup championship game is essentially an exhibition game for which the players are richly rewarded, as each member of the winning team receives more than $500,000.
Great players are evaluated based in large part on NBA championships, NBA MVPs, All-NBA selections, and overall individual statistics. Will NBA Cups eventually considered to be an important--or even relevant--part of a great player's resume? That seems doubtful.
Labels: Adam Silver, Indiana Pacers, L.A. Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA Cup, Oklahoma City Thunder
posted by David Friedman @ 12:13 AM
