Russell
You were electricity personified. You were a force, much like thunder itself, that should have been a sonic boom but that’s another story for another day. Today it’s about you, Mr. Westbrook. You were one of those ones that you just knew would translate well to the professional game. Kind of like ordering a part on eBay and verifying that it fits your car; You were stamped verified and you took the league by storm.

The biggest crime against humanity (in Seattle) was the team leaving before you got a chance to rep the sacred green & gold that was donned by some of the game’s greats like Shawn Kemp, Jack Sikma, and Brent Barry. Your number was waiting for you as were thousands of supporters who never got the chance to chant your name. This made the connection with you strange—on one hand, I couldn’t root for you purely for the jersey you wore. But on the other hand, you were impossible to root against because you played the game the way it was meant to be, with love and respect.

There were no nights that the Oklahoma City Thunder were on that anyone could have predicted what you would do in the next 48. You laid claim to 4,700 square footage of hardwood and reminded the twelve other people on the court, the thousands in the stands, and the millions across the globe who and what you were. For my money, the fastest and most enigmatic player in the world. All of your decisions—whether they were on the ball or off it—had to be done quicker than anybody else. A testament to your intelligence and practice as a craftsman and leader as the primary ball handler for the majority of your career.

Before you got injured by Patrick Beverly, you had never missed a game. From October 29th, 2008-April 24th, 2013 if the Oklahoma City Thunder had a game scheduled, the first name on the player sheet would show PG, #0, Russell Westbrook. And from your rookie year ‘til Game 7 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals I don’t know if there is a Point Guard that would be able to give you all 48 and then some while playing some of the most exhilarating and exhausting basketball anybody had ever seen.

But if we back up a little to when Kevin got really hurt for the first time, that’s when things changed with the narrative of “this guy really could average a triple double.” That’s when your game changed for the better or worse depending upon who you ask—if you asked me, I would have loved to have had the most athletic player in the game’s history to have a 15-25 foot head start on everybody else for a fast break, but hey, that’s just my opinion. For three consecutive and four total seasons you did what you felt was needed of you and that was contributing to being the ultimate team leader and team player.

No, you never won a championship, but you played the game you love for 18 years and made fans of millions of us hardcore hoops fans that never saw a player like you before and will never see a player like you again.
Nobody will ever give you your flowers for the massive change to your game, and the sacrifices that needed to happen in order to do so. They won’t remember the injuries you played through and the vitriol you endured. They will only look at what you left behind and awe in the ghost of your game forever:
– 221 Triple Doubles
– 2017 Most Valuable Player
– 9x All-NBA
– 47,813 Minutes
– 30th All-Time VORP
– 95.60 Trevor Stat Career High
– NBA LIVE 16 Cover Star
– $350.5M Career Earnings

But in the end, you get to say goodbye to the NBA and hello to the rest of your life where I know you are going to thrive even more. It’s still surreal that today is the first day that we must go on without you. It’s surreal that you were once a 20-year old jumping out of the gym and now you exit the game a grown man.

Basketball is a circle. The ball. The hoop. The world.
God bless Russell Westbrook.
And bless God for Russell Westbrook.