Some may scoff, but there’s no denying the fact that Russell Westbrook’s stat-sheet stuffing abilities have become slightly underrated at this point.
A likely future Hall-of-Famer, Russell Westbrook has achieved quite a bit in the midst of his 11th NBA season. He won league MVP honors back in 2016-17 to go along with eight trips to the All-Star Game, but his biggest accomplishment might also be the thing criticized the most, one that has taken a once glowing statistical achievement and normalized it the point of no return.
Tuesday night, Russ was at it again, only this time at a completely different level not seen before from the Brodie. He dropped 20 points, 21 assists and 20 rebounds in a 119-103 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, proceeding then to dedicate his performance to the late great, Nipsey Hussle.
Ever since Westbrook began this triple-double phenomenon, fans have been quick to dismiss its relevance, when in reality, his latest performance should serve as another example as to just how impressive these types of stat lines really are.
Prior to Westbrook’s first triple double-season in 2016-17, the first and last person to achieve that statistical threshold was Oscar Robertson way back in the 1961-62 season, and yet, rather than marvel in what was a truly historical accomplishment, a good amount of people couldn’t help but try to sully it.
They claimed he was a stat-chaser, hunting for assists while his teammates cleared the paint out and allowed him to cobble together rebounds. No one seemed to acknowledge the Oklahoma City Thunder went 33-9 in such games, clearly proving the worth of that round box score. All people could talk about was the tainted reach for that precious 10-10-10, as if it to completely disregard the nine before it.
In his historic performance against Los Angeles, Westbrook became just the second person in NBA history with a double-triple-double, joining Wilt Chamberlain, who did it 51 years ago. Any type of grouping with the Big Dipper is means for celebration, but as they do, haters will point out the concerted chase for those final rebounds or the opponent’s lack of talent.
Russ may float off his man at times in pursuit of the last rebound or dump the ball off to his bigs near the rim when he could’ve taken it himself, but there’s a reason nobody since the Big O has averaged a triple-double across an entire season, let alone in three consecutive campaigns.
It’s a difficult feat, one requiring little to no time off with a constant stream of energy and effort that must be present for every single box score addition. Westbrook’s ability to even put himself in a position to go after a 20-20-20 game is nothing short of spectacular, whether he was to get there or not.
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His statistical dominance doesn’t leapfrog him past some of the other greats in the league such as Kevin Durant and James Harden, but that doesn’t mean Russ’ accomplishments over the last two-plus seasons are anything to scoff at.
We used to marvel at the triple-double in part because of how infrequently we saw it. It used to be viewed as a threshold for one’s all-around greatness. That feeling of jubilation has been replaced with a sense of entitlement given its lack of rarity in this day and age, almost as if it’s become mundane and even expected to be seen on any given night.
Part of that is due to the offensive-minded era in which the game of basketball currently resides. Some of it is due to the pace of play, but the true establisher of this new norm in the NBA has been Westbrook himself, the ideal player for these types of performances, whose constant motor has negatively rewired the value we place on what used to be the crowning stat line of a basketball game.