Welcome to this week’s edition of Basketball & Feelings. The playoffs have been fire, and the biggest basketball story of the week by far has been the obvious one about Giannis and the Bucs getting bounced from the 1st round of the playoffs by the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat always seem to pull a move like this, let’s see if it lasts, but man did Giannis have some words to say about “success vs failure” at the post-game press conference. A small dose of props to Spike Lee and all of the other New Yorkers out there who deserve to be ecstatic about the Knicks.
“Basketball and Feelings,” a space that explores what it’s like to be alive through the rim of NBA basketball, is back again.
I hope you enjoy this week’s entry on Russell Westbrook, the “worst best player” in the NBA history.
Russell Westbrook. Ruuuuu-su-suuuu-ul — Westbrook. This story starts a long time ago, when kids hadn’t been born yet, when tomatoes could still be eaten before they gave stomach acid, when you first dropped into the league as member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. You were so young and athletic in those days; everywhere you went, you was everywhere at the same time. Back then there were two players who had that kind of tornado-like tenaciousness. You, Westbrook, and Derrick Rose, who, before his injury, was also one of my favorite players. I guess I just kind of have a thing for 6 foot physical guards whose presence you can feel on the court like they are Monster Trucks. And there’s a lot to love about Westbrook. His heart for the game is spectac. The guy simply plays with a passion that most players in today’s NBA can’t touch…
Last season, I went to a game in Los Angeles when it was still called Staples (lol!) Center. Westbrook was still a Laker then. This was relatively early on in the season, and a guy with a tech company pointed out that sitting nearby was Westbrook’s wife, Mrs. Westbrook, who really was jus a few seats over to the right, minding her own business. (I tried not to fan-boy.)
It was early in the season but it wasn’t that early. Westbrook was going to be a terrible fit on the Lakers, it was forensically obvious. The fit with Lebron and AD was a complete failure, and what we, the Lakers faithful, had seen on the court from Westbrook, was Al-Qaeda terrifying. His gazillion dollar contract that swallowed our entire roster building apparatus was just the beginning, and I didn’t expect much going into that game (by this time Westbrook was far from my favorite player) anyway, except for a few celeb sightings.
But what I saw at that Lakers game left me sick. I mean truly sick. Passes by Westbrook were being thrown out of bounds, over the heads of Anthony Davis and his other teammates, over and over again, like he was on a high school basketball B-squad Gooooooooo Wildcats! It was turnover city — turnover after turnover after turnover. Air-balled free-throws. Lebron was looking like he needed to vomit on the court, and it was not pleasant to watch. Cringeworthy — actually — sad. To see one of my former fave-o-rite players crater that much from his heyday (and it’s a whole different thing seeing it in person) was hard. But as if that wasn’t bad enough, the things Lakers fans were yelling at Westbrook, they were really mean. “West-Brick” was a common one, so was “fuck you” but there was also a lot of below the belt personal shit about his kids. This while the mother of his children is sitting in the stands. The look on Mrs. Westbrook’s face that night left a pit in my stomach.
Look, sports is emotional, and part of the fun is getting at the players, but fucking with them when they’re on the free-throw line is one thing, Westbrick is lol-lol but there’s a limit. At a certain point, things cross over into a territory that no person, athlete or otherwise, should have to take. That’s where the insults got that night, and continued to get that entire 2021/22 season…
Not too long after that game, Westbrook started getting into it with fans, and I don’t blame the guy. I would’ve done the same thing if I was him. I’m not saying I wasn’t happy when the Lakers (finally) traded his washed ass at the All Star Break, I had a BBQ in the backyard to celebrate (on my own). But I was just as happy when he made his comeback. That’s right, as we all know by now, Russ had a killer moment just this last week, for a few games. The other superstars on the Clippers were injured (again) but Westbrook wasn’t. Westbrook is never injured. You got to love that about the guy. You gotta give him his flowers for that, even though he always loses... You got to at least be nice to him, especially when Mrs. Westbrook is at the game. Westbrook never cheats the game. He doesn’t stay home or rest; he plays, and in a league where players have become masterful at not playing, the little boy fan in me still can’t help but love a guy who is going to show up, play through a minor injury, and treat the game like Mel Gibson treated the Scottish people in Braveheart.
Stay filled with passion no matter how often you fail!
Till next week!
AL