Three years ago, when he was still that guy, Russell Westbrook foreshadowed his current disastrous situation.
Doubts were beginning to creep around his game: the missed 3s, the bad decisions, the reliance on athleticism over skill. Asked if he was affected by the criticism, Westbrook said, “I’ve been blessed with the talent not to provide a f—.”
That could be read two ways: He has a talent for not caring about what others say, or he has a lot talent, he doesn’t have to care. Each were accurate – and so they now explain why Westbrook’s profession is hurtling toward a cliff with the identical momentum he once had attacking the rim.
Back when Los Angeles Lakers guard Westbrook was a tornado in sneakers on his approach to setting the all-time NBA record for triple-doubles, his athleticism and relentlessness made him unique. No person could stop him from ending on the rim or getting off his accurate midrange pull-up. His 3-pointer was at all times suspect, at 30% for his profession, but he was never scared to shoot them anyway due to his stubborn belief in himself. Above all, Westbrook never, ever stopped attacking. He emptied his clip every night and lived by the mantra “Why not?”
Now, approaching his 34th birthday, Westbrook isn’t any longer in a position to hop over and thru people, but he keeps trying. His midrange is sketchy and his 3-ball even worse, but he keeps hoisting. His history of refusing to alter is unchanged. At this point, with criticism raining down amid the Los Angeles Lakers’ 0-4 start, Westbrook is largely doing this to himself.
The query “can Russell change his game?” has followed Westbrook because the Oklahoma City Thunder politely pushed their MVP point guard out of town in 2019. He briefly looked as if it would adjust with the Houston Rockets, but didn’t like playing off the ball and asked for a trade. With the Washington Wizards he played just like the Westbrook of old, averaging a triple-double together with nearly five turnovers per game. Since coming to the Lakers in 2021, there was no evidence that he’s willing to account for his decline in athleticism and the imperative to spread the ground for teammates LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
After I profiled Westbrook just after he left Oklahoma City, I discovered a person built and defined by his supremely stubborn nature, and who leaned right into a “me against the world” attitude despite gifts that got him drafted at 19 and have earned him $340 million during his profession. “I’m not going to alter who I’m,” he told me then. “I feel like my mindset has gotten me up to now. But there may be ways to have the option to regulate through your mindset and adjust to latest teams, adjust to different players, and I’m in a position to try this.”
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Now we all know: Even that adjustment ain’t happening. Russ will at all times be Russ.
To be sure that I wasn’t missing something, I called hooper and basketball entrepreneur Devin Williams, who trains NBA players and watches as much film as anybody. Yo, Dev, is it just me, or is Westbrook stuck previously?
“The identical thing that made him a terrific player is what makes him who he’s straight away,” Williams said. “Being resilient, being a bit bit stubborn, going against the grain, being that tough player that we’ve come to know. Nevertheless it’s also hurting him in this example because he won’t adjust.”
I actually feel for Westbrook. Changing the core of your being is difficult. Losing the powers that made you excellent is painful. Hearing your property crowd murmur, sigh and yell, “Don’t shoot!” when you may have the ball – I wouldn’t wish that humiliation on anybody, even when he’s making $47 million this season.
The Lakers’ problems also run much deeper than Westbrook. General manager Rob Pelinka has Frankensteined a roster that doesn’t complement James and Davis. Ignore lasers, the Lakers role players are shooting like they lost their flashlights after the lights went out on the park. Yes, in Monday’s loss to Portland, Westbrook missed a pull-up jumper with 27 seconds left in the sport, 18 seconds on the shot clock and the Lakers up one point – the improper shot in that situation. But shortly before that, James missed an ill-advised side-step 3 with loads of time left on the shot clock. Davis bounced a corner 3 off the side of the backboard. Although persons are begging the Lakers to trade Westbrook immediately and even pay him to stay home, neither move would solve the team’s problems.
But still. Westbrook, being Westbrook, is doing himself no favors.
He began the season with a solid game against Golden State: 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Then he went 0-for-11 against the LA Clippers, including 0-for-6 from 3, and described his performance afterward as “Solid, played hard, all you’ll be able to ask for.”
Wait – you’ll be able to’t be asked to make one basket?
Within the Portland debacle, Westbrook shot 4-for-15 and missed all three of his 3-pointers. That last crunch-time clank, which Westbrook shot off-balance despite no defender being inside six feet of him, and which Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said after the sport they were hoping he would take, encapsulated every criticism of Westbrook’s game. Even in the event you are on the lookout for a 2-for-1 shot clock opportunity, why not accept your limitations and pass the ball to James or Davis? The one reason is Westbrook’s stubborn denial of the apparent: He’s not what he was once.
There may be precedent for Westbrook’s predicament. “An awesome player is just not great because he’s rational,” former Georgetown coach John Thompson told me for his autobiography. “He’s great because he’s irrational.” Thompson was talking about Allen Iverson, whose NBA ending must be a warning to Westbrook. When Iverson lost his speed and quickness, when his aura faded and he was asked to return off the bench – when Iverson was not that guy – he couldn’t adjust. Two seasons after starting all 82 games and averaging 26 points, he was gone.
Speaking of coming off the bench: That role has been proposed for Westbrook, but the primary time latest Lakers coach Darvin Ham tried it, in a preseason game, Westbrook claimed it was answerable for tweaking his hamstring. He sat out Wednesday’s game against the Denver Nuggets with “hamstring soreness” — and the Lakers still got spanked.
Carmelo Anthony, however, who once was that guy and is the NBA’s ninth all-time leading scorer, was in a position to extend his profession by accepting a vastly reduced role. Vince Carter is one other superstar who lasted 20 years by embracing his decline as an alternative of fighting it.
But Anthony and Carter had a ratchet from 3. With Westbrook, teams are practically begging him to shoot. Now in his 15th season, Westbrook is likely to be effective on handoffs, as a cutter off the ball, or by keeping his dribble on drives to the ring as an alternative of launching himself on the rim. But there was no sign of any of that in Los Angeles.
His collapse has been painful to observe, like seeing sprinter Usain Bolt pull up lame in his final race or baseball great Willie Mays stumble under fly balls in center field. But unlike those legends, who drew admiration for giving it their all, there’s a way that Westbrook’s struggles are avoidable. And he doesn’t seem curious about filling the normal aging-veteran roles of mentor or locker room leader.
“Clearly you don’t need to be contained in the organization to see that there’s some stubbornness involved,” Williams said. “You don’t need to be within the organization to grasp that there’s some things happening with the celebs of that team. In case you just look, there’s a clip of how frustrated ’Bron and AD were with that shot Westbrook took at the tip of the Portland game.”
Williams, a Golden State fan, misses the Westbrook who helped propel the Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012 after which battled the Warriors firstly of their dynasty. “Those OKC versus Golden State rivalries, those were fun to observe. What makes me probably the most indignant is that if you see a decline in a player like this, people assume that player was never good. Like, they ignore things that he used to do. At the tip of the day, Russell was superfun to observe. So, now, obviously you don’t wish to see players exit like this. You simply don’t.”
Clearly, Westbrook can’t move on from the things he used to do. Why not? Let’s take the person at his word: “I’m not going to alter who I’m.”
