To say “I told you so” would be appropriate. But somehow I’d sound like everybody else.
Regardless of what happens in the second round, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2013 NBA title chances were effectively deaded when Patrick Beverley tried to swipe the ball from Russell Westbrook just before a timeout in Game 2 of their first round series against the Houston Rockets.
Sidebar: For the record, this was not a dirty play by Beverley. Guys have been pulling that move for years— this was simply an unfortunate result from a routine play.
Nobody can accuse the Thunder of laying down. Kevin Durant has been a warrior of late, averaging (going into last night’s game) 34.0 points, 10.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 44.3 minutes per contest since he lost his fallen comrade. But they were lucky to get out of Houston with a series win and all signs indicate that they won’t be so lucky after tangling with the Grizzlies in The Grindhouse.
As a long time supporter of Russell Westbrook (support that predates the Thunder making him the fourth overall pick of the 2008 NBA Draft), it was difficult to watch him deal with the criticism that he has been hit with year after year. Talking heads from coast to coast would rip Westbrook repeatedly for his shoot-first mentality and hyper-aggressive approach to the game, which often came at the expense of Durant, his more talented teammate. Skeptics lamented his game to the point that a basketball novice would take one look at the commentary on Westbrook and automatically assume he was to blame for every Oklahoma City L (which didn’t happen all that often the past three years).
Now, Westbrook is gone…and so is the heart of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
KD is clearly the best player on the team. Guys like that only come around two or three times in every 15 years. But general manager Sam Presti did not construct a team that was loaded with offensive options. OKC was Durant, Westbrook, Harden and nothing else through the 2011-12 season, with the mantle of responsibility only swelling with the departure of The Beard last October. To consistently crush Westbrook for his shot selection/frequency is to totally ignore the philosophy of the team and its management.
And to whom was Westbrook supposed to be giving these shots? Thabo Sefolosha? Kendrick Perkins? Kevin Durant???
The same Kevin Durant who finished in the top five in FGAs per game in three of the five years Westbrook was his teammate? The same Kevin Durant who won three straight scoring titles before finishing second this season? The same Kevin Durant who is on record having encouraged Westbrook to score more?
From the top-down, the Thunder believe in Russell Westbrook.
And why wouldn’t they? You’d be hard pressed to find six guys in the NBA that were better this year. The same could be said last year. Statistically, Russell has been dominant, but what most of his haters fail to realize is that his contribution far outweighs the ink on the box score. Westbrook brings attitude, heart and more swag than a hipster could (Harlem) shake a stick at. If Durant is Jay-Z, Westbrook is undoubtedly the Kanye West of the Thunder “Throne”. He brings the rhythm, the tempo and the score (see what I did there?) to the game and his unique gifts are as responsible for the Thunder’s success as KD’s or anyone else’s.
And yet, all we were forced to hear was junk like this…
Until he gave us a game like this….
Then he had em talkin like this…
Still, two parts of the Russell Westbrook saga remain extremely troublesome.
First, the double-standard that this guy has had to endure is hard to escape. Westbrook’s career arc has paralleled that of another great player: A player that also stood in the shadow of a more dominate teammate and also carried much of the playmaking burden for his team, yet his innate explosiveness and ability to get buckets (albeit inefficiently at times) made it a never-ending struggle to harness his incredible talents. Years later, few people remember Kobe Bryant for his irrepressible personality as much as they remember him for his five championships and his desire to be second to none.
Sidebar: And these days, Kobe stans are like Tupac stans. You say one negative thing and they’re ready to slit your throat! THUG LIFE!!!
Why was Russell Westbrook never afforded the opportunity to make the very best of his basketball career? Because he has a “PG” instead of an “SG” next to his name in the media guide? And this is an oversight that seems particularly negligent considering Bryant is still fresh in our minds. Kobe didn’t become “The Black Mamba” until he gave himself that nickname by taking a back seat to anyone. Today, he’s one of the most revered athletes of all-time and has even admitted to seeing a lot of himself in Westbrook.
Russell is following in the footsteps of Kobe, Kobe followed in the footsteps of Jordan.
The other unappealing part of the story is the sudden disingenuousness of the national sports media as it relates to the UCLA product. A few came to his defense, but the overwhelming majority of talking heads sounded just like our friend Magic Johnson (in the first video) at some point within the last two years when dissecting Westbrook’s game. Now that he’s missing games due to injury for the first time in his career — a highly underrated aspect of the Westbrook package — it has become fashionable to take a similar stance to this piece.
All of a sudden, the Westbrook bandwagon is mighty crowded— everybody can’t be taking the “I told you so” position, not after the way the media raked this kid over the coals.
There’s little to no accountability in the sports media. But when the debate format dominates the 24-hour news cycle, across all mediums, skirting on accountability seems as natural as breathing.
“Trade Westbrook” was the battle cry, once upon a time. To hypothetically replace Westbrook with a point guard with the ability to score some, but would rather distribute first, like a Ricky Rubio or Andre Miller, would rob the Thunder of what it is that makes them special. One cannot defend all of the decisions Russ West makes on the floor. He’ll have more than his fair share of head-scratching moments over the course of a game. But you take the good with the bad with him, much like you accept Rondo’s missed jumpers, Kyrie Irving’s injuries and CP3’s (at times) lack of assertiveness.
Sidebar: For years, I have been a firm believer that a team cannot win an NBA Championship with a shoot-first point guard as their #1 scoring option. Teams built that way just don’t work because the baskets are just too hard to come by. They tried it with Arenas, they tried it with Iverson; the closet was Isaiah Thomas, but Zeke was always about making his teammates better too. If Westbrook were the #1 option for Oklahoma City, I’d be worried. But he’s not, even if he’d like to believe he his from time to time.
Russell Westbrook is a special player and — along with Derrick Rose — is one of the two most athletic point guards in NBA history. He wants to be great. Like a prolific home run hitter, he doesn’t get cheated when he steps in the batter’s box and he’d rather strike out swinging than strike out looking. You can’t say that about every great player.
The shame of it is it took a freak accident for the world to finally wake up and realize the type of asset he is to a basketball team. But a wise man once said…
“If you admire somebody, you should go ahead and tell em/People never get the flowers while they can still smell em.”- Kanye West