Russell Westbrook, his vigor and the tenacity he used to play with are fading fast
Russell Westbrook, his vigor and the tenacity he used to play with are fading fast, but they will never be forgotten.
It’s a tough pill to swallow that the 33-year-old, now just an unwanted contract for most of the league’s franchises, is among the top 75 NBA players of all time.
But if we look at Westbrook’s best moments from just two years ago, we’ll know what the 6-foot-3 guard was all about. The recency bias has made us all forget that this man has led his teams to the playoffs with only one more All-Star on the roster.
Whether you see it or not, Russell Westbrook is one of the NBA’s all-time greats.
A triple-double machine who has statistically proven to be better than Oscar Robertson.
Because of the stats, we bring a lot of Russ and Oscar comparisons over the years, but game-wise, there was a 6’4 guard in Los Angeles who helped Magic Johnson and company win 3 championships with his similar vigor to Brodie’s.
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John Salley tells Byron Scott he had a similar game to Russell Westbrook but better jump shots
Byron Scott was one of the main reasons Magic Johnson has five and not two championships in his trophy case.
Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar might have been the face of it all, but without “unstoppable” Scott, their legacies wouldn’t be the same.
Listen to John Salley talk to him in his Byron Scott podcast and compare him to Westbrook as the former had a better jump shot.
His career stats may never help him get into the Basketball Hall of Fame, but those 3 championships without Byron’s 18p-3.5r-3.5a average in those 3 years it would not have been possible.
Due to the abundance of greatness in that era, Scott was snubbed for his All-Star selections.
Believe it or not, he has none.
It’s only been 2 years since Russ has been missing the All-Star and All-NBA teams and he forgets how awesome he once was.
His jump shots were never his forte, but this offseason he seems to have worked hard to change that, hopefully it translates into something special when the 2022-23 season begins.
