NFL
By: Chris Jordan
What will a championship mean for Russell Westbrook’s legacy?
This upcoming season will be Westbrook’s 14th season in the NBA. Westbrook has had a great career and he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Since Westbrook was drafted in 2008 by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Westbrook has made a name for himself as one of the greatest players in the NBA and he’s one of the most athletic point guards ever.
Westbrook played eleven seasons with Oklahoma City Thunder organization. During his eleven seasons with the Thunder Westbrook accomplished a lot for their franchise
Westbrook is a 9x all-star, 2-time scoring champion. 2-time all-star game MVP, 2017 most valuable player award, and he’s averaged a triple-double three times playing for the Thunder.
Westbrook is the career leader points leader in Oklahoma City Thunder with 18,859 points. Westbrook is known as Mr. Triple Double because he’s averaging a triple-double three times for one franchise.
Westbrook played alongside Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, and James Harden. In 2012, the Oklahoma City Thunder made it to the NBA finals and lost to the Miami Heat led by LeBron James.
During that summer, the Thunder would trade James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Despite, the loss of Harden that summer Westbrook and Durant were still one of the best duos in the NBA at that time.
However, despite the individual success and team success of Westbrook and Durant they would never accomplish their goal of winning a championship together.
In 2016, the thunder would blow a 3-1 lead against the Golden State Warriors. Which would lead to Durant leaving Westbrook that following summer and head to Golden State and win back to back championships.
While Westbrook was having great individual success with winning a most valuable player award and being the first player to average a triple-double for multiple seasons.
Westbrook was still getting bounced out the first round for three consecutive seasons while seeing former players such as Kevin Durant and James Harden competing for championships.
In 2016, when Durant left the Thunder for Golden State. The Thunder traded for Victor Oladipo who was a player on the rise and with all-star potential but the two didn’t have the greatest success because they were eliminated by the Rockets in the first round that season.
In 2017, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded for Paul George to play alongside Russell Westbrook and give him the help that he needed to contend for a championship. Especially since Durant was no longer in Oklahoma City.
The Westbrook and George experiment never worked the way they thought it would. At the time rookie, Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz would go on to eliminate the Thunder in the first round. The following season the Thunder would again be put out the first-round by Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers.
In 2019, Westbrook was traded to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul. Westbrook was playing alongside his former teammate and longtime friend James Harden.
Although, Westbrook and Harden both had great overall seasons. They would fall short of their short of winning a championship.
The Rockets lost to the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs which lead to Westbrook wanting out of Houston and being shipped to Washington DC to team up with Bradley Beal.
Westbrook and Beal were a fun duo to watch but in reality, they were not good enough to be a serious threat at winning a championship.
After all the ups and downs in Westbrook’s career thus far. He has the opportunity to win a championship with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a very talented Lakers roster.
Throughout Westbrook’s career, the narrative has always been that no one can win a championship with him because of his playing style, his decision-making at times, and his inability to make shots from the perimeter.
Will Westbrook change thst narrative about himself?
Will Westbrook get that title that he has yet to win?
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