Russell Westbrook Triple Double Season Again
Enigma.
That might be the best word to depict Washington Wizards point guard Russell Westbrook, a player whose career has been both illustrious and complicated.
Westbrook entered this 2021 season every bit a nine-time NBA All-Star, 9-time All-NBA option, two-time All-Star Game MVP and the NBA MVP in 2016-17. Now, afterwards his latest in a long string of dazzling all-around performances on Monday night confronting Atlanta, he is likewise the league's all-time leader in triple-doubles.
Magic Johnson, considered by many to be the greatest point guard in NBA history, urged fans to praise Westbrook for his on-court prowess, emphasizing how difficult it is to do what the Wizards guard does.
"People take played 13 years, 15 years, and never get 20 rebounds," Johnson said. "Same with assists. I know I got 24 a lot, just for him to get 24, there'south guards who'south played who would never get even twenty (assists). The things he's been able to do, hopefully, we will say, 'Give him his love, give him his respect.' This is actually big. This is something I couldn't even do. I know how big it is."
And Wizards coach Scott Brooks recently said he considers Westbrook to exist the 2nd-best betoken guard in NBA history behind Magic.
And there is no denying Westbrook is i of the NBA's all-time keen signal guards and one of the most productive players the league has seen from a statistical perspective.
He has averaged a triple-double in four of the last five seasons and has been one of the NBA's all-time players for the improve part of a decade. He's also played in the postseason 10 times and was a key component of a 2011-12 Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder team that advanced to the NBA Finals.
But for all of those trips to the postseason, and all of the private accolades amassed, Westbrook has yet to bring home the ultimate hardware.
A Larry O'Brien trophy.
This is a bespeak Skip Bayless made on "Undisputed." Bayless praised Westbrook's energy, effort and ability to fill up a box score, merely said that he wouldn't trust Westbrook with a title on the line.
"Magic knew how to win in ways Russ has never gotten it through his head how to win," he said. "In that location's some factor that you lot're born with that is the winning cistron, and Russ doesn't have information technology. But I loved what Magic said because he's stepping back saying nosotros need to capeesh him even more we practise and I got it. I'm with yous. … But when information technology comes down to, 'OK, how do you win? Can y'all shoot information technology at all?' No, he can't shoot it at all."
That might sound harsh from Bayless, simply show has suggested that Westbrook might exist shaky at all-time when the lights are the brightest.
Upon Kevin Durant's divergence from the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in 2016, Westbrook failed to brand information technology out of the first circular of the NBA playoffs from 2017-2019 while as well declining to win 50 games in whatsoever of those three seasons.
For his career, Westbrook's help-to-turnover ratio in the playoffs is less than 2 to ane. He has likewise averaged four turnovers per game in the playoffs throughout his career, and he has iv career postseason appearances where he has shot beneath forty% from the field.
It is articulate that Westbrook is a lightning rod for conversation, equally observers struggle to procedure a player who is both historically productive while likewise being, at times, infuriatingly reckless. This was evidenced by the inability of ESPN's Max Kellerman to answer the question: Is Westbrook overrated or underrated?
"He is overrated by one-half the basketball fans and underrated by the other half, badly," he said.
Now that Westbrook has passed Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson for the NBA's all-fourth dimension triple-double tape, and while he attempts to will the Wizards into the playoffs, the enigmatic point baby-sit is again in the spotlight as fans and pundits try to define his legacy.
1 of those who made such an attempt was Pecker Simmons, who offered a nuanced viewpoint on the Beak Simmons Podcast: "He but makes terrible decisions. He's sometimes just a railroad train wreck. And then he can lose a game, win it, lose it and win it all in the span of iv plays. ... This is the Westbrook experience."
Simply Simmons continued: "I'm kinda coming around because he's and so intense. This is the one guy who like really gives a south---. He's but got a lot of flaws. But I practice think when he'southward on your squad, information technology's almost impossible to go below .500. He cares likewise much."
For Chris Broussard, who talked about the feat on Tuesday's episode of "Offset Things Offset," Westbrook solidified his proper name in the annals of the sport.
Westbrook's game is unique. He tin can dazzle in one moment and infuriate in the next. Simply he'll ever capture attention with his intensity, bulldoze and talent.
His legacy is complicated and murky and difficult to define. And maybe that in itself is what makes it special.
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Source: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/russell-westbrook-is-officially-mr-triple-double-but-his-legacy-is-complicated
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