Russell Westbrook
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Russell Westbrook (born November 12, 1988, Long Beach, California, U.S.) is an American basketball player known for his obsessive work ethic and ferocious competitive intensity on the court. In 2016–17 Westbrook became the second player in NBA history, after Oscar Robertson, to average a triple-double (double figures in major categories, most commonly points, rebounds, and assists) over a full season, a feat he later accomplished again three times in his career. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NBA that season.
Early life and college career
Westbrook was born to Russell Westbrook, Jr., and Shannon Horton, and he has a younger brother, Raynard Westbrook. The tight-knit family lived mainly in Hawthorne, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, during his childhood. Russell Westbrook practiced basketball with his dad from a young age, often for several hours a day, doing repetitive drills they invented together. During those sessions they worked to perfect a move that later became one of the younger Westbrook’s signatures as a professional—driving full-speed to the hoop and pulling up abruptly to shoot a midrange shot. They call it the “cotton shot” because they expect it to always go through the basketball hoop by touching only the cotton net.
Westbrook arrived in high school as an undersized freshman, at 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 meters) tall, and he did not play on the varsity team until his junior year. However, by the end of his senior year he had shot up to 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 meters) and earned a reputation among scouts from regional universities as a hard-playing, defense-minded point guard. He received a scholarship to play for his hometown University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which expected him to be a backup. Westbrook had a modest impact as a freshman, averaging just 3.4 points in nine minutes per game. His role expanded in his second year, during which he averaged 12.7 points and 4.3 assists per game, and he won Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Westbrook’s coaches wanted him to stay in college another year to become the team’s leader and to bolster his chances of going higher in the NBA draft, but he opted to turn professional.
Star NBA guard
Westbrook’s decision to bet on himself was rewarded when the Seattle SuperSonics drafted him with the number four overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, higher than most observers expected him to be selected. The team’s general manager, Sam Presti, explained the choice to The Seattle Times by citing the “tremendous respect” that Westbrook’s college teammates had for him and also for his “character and defensive mentality.”
By the time Westbrook suited up for the team, the SuperSonics had relocated to Oklahoma City and had been rebranded as the Thunder. He joined offensive savant Kevin Durant, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year. Westbrook had a memorable debut season in 2008–09, becoming the fifth rookie 21 years old or younger, to average at least 15 points, five assists, and four rebounds (the others were Magic Johnson, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, and Chris Paul). Nevertheless, the team struggled to a 23–59 record.
The Thunder had a remarkable turnaround the next season, winning 50 games and catapulting themselves into the playoffs. This was greatly aided by Westbrook, who showed marked improvement across the board, especially in passing, averaging 8 assists per game, up from 5.3 his rookie season. In Westbrook’s third season (2010–11), he was named an All-Star for the first time and was voted to the All-NBA second team. He repeated those feats in his fourth season (2011–12) and helped propel the team to the NBA finals. There the precocious Westbrook and Durant—both just 23 years old—put up a valiant effort against the Miami Heat. Westbrook notably scored 43 points in game four, but Oklahoma City lost the series in five games. That summer he won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. men’s basketball team at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Over the next several years, the formidable duo of the brash Westbrook and the quiet Durant made the Thunder a perennial championship contender, although they never were able to win a title. During the 2013–14 regular season Westbrook was slowed by a torn meniscus in his right knee—the initial injury occurred during the previous season’s playoffs—that required multiple surgeries and allowed him to play in only 46 (out of 82) games. He bounced back the next year and won the NBA scoring title by averaging 28.1 points per game, which was partly a result of Durant being injured for most of the season and Westbrook having to pick up the slack on offense. The star pair had one final playoff run together, after the 2015–16 season when they reached the Western Conference finals and were up 3–1 on the Golden State Warriors before losing three straight games. That offseason Durant left the Thunder to join the rival Warriors. In 2017 The New York Times observed, “For eight seasons, Westbrook and Durant were one of the great inscrutable duos in all of sports, superstars with wildly opposing personalities and playing styles, overachieving together in Oklahoma City, one of the smallest markets in the N.B.A.”
By this time Westbrook had acquired a reputation as a domineering personality on and off the court, and observers speculated that Durant had left to escape the tense atmosphere created by the point guard. In his first year (2016–17) as the undisputed leader of the Thunder, Westbrook submitted his best season—and one of the most statistically eye-popping in NBA history—becoming the second player to average a triple-double. Westbrook led the league with a career-high 31.6 points per game and was 3rd in assists (10.4) and 10th in rebounds (10.7) per game. He was named league MVP. The rebounding stat was especially impressive for a point guard, not a position usually associated with big numbers in that category. To top it off, Westbrook’s win broke the two-year MVP-winning streak of Durant’s new teammate, Warriors star Stephen Curry.
Westbrook also averaged a triple-double in the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, but his individual brilliance did not transfer to great team success, and the Thunder lost in the first round of the playoffs both years.
Later career
In the 2019 offseason, the Thunder traded Westbrook, then 30 years old, to the Houston Rockets in a blockbuster deal for Chris Paul and a collection of high draft picks. Westbrook played with his former Thunder teammate James Harden in Houston, but the pairing lasted only one full season. In December 2020 Westbrook was dealt to the Washington Wizards. There he led the league with a career-high 11.7 assists per game and averaged a triple-double for the fourth time. He was moved again in the following offseason, this time to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he joined LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Westbrook, accustomed to being the team leader with the ball in his hands, failed to find a productive starting role in his first season there. In the subsequent season (2022–23) in Los Angeles, Westbrook came off the bench for the first time in his career. While that new arrangement showed initial promise, by February the Lakers, reportedly at the instigation of James, traded Westbrook to the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz bought out Westbrook’s contract, and he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Although he was no longer the dominant player he had been—his 11.1 points per game average during the 2023–24 season was the lowest of his career—the Clippers praised the energy he injected into the team in a supporting role. Also during that season Westbrook reached 24th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, with 25,211 points. In the following offseason Westbrook signed with the Denver Nuggets.
Personal life
In 2015 Westbrook married Nina Earl, whom he had met at UCLA when they were both playing basketball for the school. They have a son, Noah, and twin daughters, Skye and Jordyn.