For the first time since 2008, the NBA season could begin without Russell Westbrook. After spending a year with the Denver Nuggets that saw him develop a reliable partnership with superstar Nikola Jokic, the mercurial point guard decided to opt out of his contract this summer, allegedly due to the Nuggets’ lack of plan for the future. Given his stature in the league and his strong play in Denver, Russ probably expected to find other suitors. Instead, we’re less than a week away from tipoff and Westbrook remains a free agent.
In his prime, watching Westbrook charge down the court was like watching a Mack truck plow into minivans, that rare hoop whose dunks seemed to separate the rim from the backboard. He averaged a triple-double three straight seasons in Oklahoma City and repeated the feat a fourth time with the Wizards during the 2020-2021 season. Russ was a two-time scoring champion, MVP and nine-time All-Star. Those who called his playing style selfish quickly forgot that he led the league in assists in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
I feel like I’m writing a eulogy. It shouldn’t. Russell Westbrook didn’t die, he didn’t officially retire, and he didn’t suffer any career-ending injuries. He’s 36, which isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but far from the usual expiration date for star players. He’s not injury-prone, and while he’s no longer averaging a triple-double, he still has a lot to bring to an NBA team. Westbrook would be the first to admit that he is no longer a top option; in fact, he did as much during his tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2023-24. After realizing that the four-man setup of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden and himself wasn’t gelling like it should, he offered to come off the bench and lead the second unit. During his 2024-25 campaign with the Nuggets, he proved to be a hitman for Nikola Jokic as Jamal Murray struggled to return from injury.
Over the years, Westbrook has become a controversial figure and regular punching bag in the NBA media. It’s difficult to pin down exactly when it started, but the slander of Russ has been particularly searing during his admittedly disastrous tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2021 to 2023. The team hoped he could complete a Big Three alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Long story short: it didn’t work, which came as no surprise to all true ball connoisseurs. Westbrook’s heliocentric approach always seemed ill-suited to a Lakers team that needed him as a third option. It was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved: Westbrook was stuck in a system poorly suited to his style of play, while the Lakers burned through a season and a half of LeBron’s late career with nothing to show for it. His reputation among casual NBA viewers and Lakers fans — two groups that, in this author’s somewhat biased opinion, share significant overlap — never really recovered, despite his on-court efforts improving dramatically once he left the franchise.
Westbrook is of course far from immune to criticism, and he didn’t leave Denver on the best note. After starting strong in the Nuggets’ second-round series against the eventual champion Thunder, he hit indefensible rock bottom, averaging 21 percent from the 3-point line and making just six points in a Game 7. His big personality can sometimes be irritating on and off the court, and he struggles to integrate into more democratic systems of play. Perhaps the biggest knock on Russ late in his career is that he is streaky. This is a guy who lost 29 to the Thunder in the regular season, then found himself down single digits against them during the playoffs more than once. This same player scored a meager 5 points against the Clippers in December, only to be the deciding factor that ensured the Nuggets won against them in a seven-game playoff series. Performances like this are what GMs pay players for, but they need to know they’ll get their money’s worth.
