When Kevin Durant announced his intentions to leave Oklahoma City, it set up two scenarios basketball fans couldn’t wait to see. First, the obvious: how would one of the best teams of all time look after adding one of the best players in the league? The second scenario was even juicier: if Russell Westbrook was criticized for dominating the Thunder offense with Durant, how would he play with Durant gone?
Westbrook has always played in the manner of someone who believed the key to his team’s success was his own production. And he’s not necessarily wrong; Westbrook is indisputably a fantastic player, one of the very best in the league. But his dominant personality seemed to marginalize Durant from time to time, which may very well have helped push Durant to the Warriors.
Take this GIF, for example, which feels like a perfect distillation of the Westbrook/Durant relationship:
GIF: Russ and KD on this "play" WTF https://t.co/xjPt4LzOOA
— JD (@JDonsports) December 6, 2014
If Westbrook was willing to do things like that while playing with Durant, how crazy would he be once he was clearly the #1 option on every possession? Well, he’s responded by averaging a triple-double through the first 26 games of the season: 30.5 points, 10.6 assists, 10.5 rebounds. Those are ridiculous numbers, and likely unsustainable; the only player to average a season-long triple double was Oscar Robertson in 1961. Regardless, he’s going to finish the season with monster stats.
Unfortunately, those numbers haven’t yet translated to team success, at least not on the level to which the Thunder have grown accustomed. They’re 15-11 to start the year, and last night they lost 109-89 to Utah, a fellow Western Conference playoff contender. Westbrook had 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists in a losing effort, which is somehow an off-night by his own early-season standards. He was asked about his own numbers after the loss, responding in the fashion (not a glasses joke) you’re probably expecting:
“Honestly, man, people and this triple-double thing is kind of getting on my nerves, really,” Westbrook said after a 109-89 loss to the Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena. “People think if I don’t get it, it’s like a big thing. When I do get it, it’s a thing. If y’all just let me play – if I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t care. It is what it is. I really don’t care. For the hundredth time. I don’t care. All I care about is winning, honestly. All the numbers s*** don’t mean nothing to me.”
And he’s not lying! Westbrook has never seemed like a selfish player in the traditional sense, where he values his own numbers or shots more than team performance. He’s just seemed selfish in that he fully believes that no matter who else is on his team, their best chance to win is if he gets his. And for the first time in his career, this is inarguably true. Victor Oladipo is a nice player, and the Thunder have other decent options, but it’s hard to see the Thunder competing with the best teams in the league if Westbrook has a bad night, especially come playoff time.
The media is going to focus on the numbers as long as they’re a story, though, as they should. They’re insane numbers. But Westbrook is probably going to give this answer multiple times throughout the season. And as we go along, he’ll probably add a few more four-letter words.
[NewsOK]
