By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook announces his retirement on social media after 18 seasons.
Westbrook spent his first 11 seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He spent some of his best seasons with the organization. Westbrook joined forces with Kevin Durant and James Harden. The trio was considered the future of the NBA, title contenders for years to come. The trio made the 2012 NBA Finals together but lost to the Miami Heat.
After the Harden trade and Durant left OKC for Golden State, Westbrook became the number one option for the team. In his first season as the leading man for the Thunder, he won the league MVP and broke Oscar Robertson’s triple-double single-season record.
In the early 2010s. Westbrook and Derrick Rose were two of the most athletic point guards in the NBA. The athleticism we saw from Westbrook was different in the NBA. As a point guard, Westbrook always played at 110 percent speed. He never gave you short effort. He was always on the go, go, go.
Sometimes playing at such a rapid pace ended up hurting his team. Some of his decision-making was not smart. Other problems that Westbrook had were his tantrums against fans. The more he did this, the more ammunition he gave fans to heckle him because he was an easy target and they knew how to get under his skin.
Media can be very negative, and most would like to find the negative stuff to come out of an athlete’s mouth. Westbrook and the media didn’t always see eye to eye. At times, Westbrook was wrong for expressing the way he did, but at other times he did the right thing by defending himself and his teammates.
After his time with the Thunder, Westbrook made several stops with the Rockets, Lakers, Nuggets, Kings, and Wizards. If there was one team where Westbrook was appreciated besides the Thunder, it was the Nuggets. The fanbase loved what he brought to the organization.
Westbrook is one of the best rebounding point guards ever to play this game. Thunder drafted him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2008 Draft out of UCLA. The 37-year-old finishes his career as a 9x All-Star with 27,176 points, 10,351 assists, and career averages of 20.9 points, 8.0 assists, and 6.9 rebounds per game.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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