Sports naturally invoke debate. That's one of the beauties of it. Seldom do you see folks share the same opinion or have the same thought. Whether about a league team or a player. But an exception occurred on Wednesday. When Russell Westbrook announced his NBA retirement, the entire sports world threw flowers at his feet.
For probably the first time in his career, the 37-year-old received universal praise. Westbrook hangs up his sneakers as one of the NBA's defining stars of the 2010s era. You can't talk about that decade of basketball without bringing him up and his video-game-esque accomplishments.
Westbrook is a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. The former MVP winner is one of the NBA's best point guards ever. Alongside Kevin Durant and Paul George,
he co-starred on a decade's worth of title contenders on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Along the way, he was a perennial All-Star and All-NBA member.
When you think of Westbrook, you think of triple-doubles. He completely redefined what the statistical accomplishment meant. After 55 years since Oscar Robertson did the impossible by averaging one for an entire season, Westbrook rattled off four such years in a five-year span — completely normalizing the once-mythical stat line.
Combining his superhero-esque athleticism and 100-MPH playstyle with his bundle of headache-inducing mistakes on a nightly basis, you get the ingredients for one of the more polarizing NBA superstars ever. If you were a Westbrook fan, you were ride-or-die. It was you guys against the world. If you were a skeptic, well you probably enjoyed his constant shortcomings and how much his legendary career petered out in the final one-third of it.
Thunder fans are in the former camp. Westbrook spent the first 11 of his 18 NBA seasons in OKC. That's where he enjoyed being at the peak of his powers. Even though he had his faults, the small market completely embraced him as one of its own. To the point that he'd received thunderous applause every time he visited with the opposing team.
There's a tribal element involved in being a Westbrook supporter. Thunder fans have backed him in his corner for nearly two decades. Even if their relationship was a bit rocky at the beginning. While Kevin Durant received all of the Valentine's Day love, the OKC fanbase eventually learned that it was Westbrook who appreciated them for who they are.
After Durant left, Westbrook stayed. He signed a new contract extension. And did it again. Even though the Thunder never won an NBA playoff series in the three seasons when it was just Westbrook's team, his commitment to stay in the small market showed that it's feasible for an NBA superstar to enjoy success there. A thought that needed some reassurance after Durant left for the Golden State Warriors.
During those 11 years, Westbrook repped OKC hard. He never shied from the small market's blue-collar makeup. He helped put the Thunder on the NBA map for over a decade. Continuously on national TV, he forced the rest of the league to respect them as a powerhouse.
Sure, Westbrook might no longer be the greatest Thunder player ever — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander usurped him and Durant for that crown and the 'best player in OKC history' crown in one fell swoop with the Larry O'Brien trophy — but he'll forever remain the first NBA superstar that OKC fans truly fell in love with. There's something special about that.
Westbrook gets to walk away from the game forever associated with the Thunder. The young NBA franchise isn't even two decades old yet. But every sports franchise remembers the first superstar it truly fell in love with — Bill Russell with the Boston Celtics; George Mikan with the Los Angeles Lakers; Don Meredith with the Dallas Cowboys; Babe Ruth with the New York Yankees. He was OKC's version of that.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Russell Westbrook retires with lasting legacy of being OKC's first NBA superstar
