The Side Part: He’s like Prince, but with basketball
Russell Westbrook is the leading scorer in the NBA. His 49 last night pushed him to 27.0 a game, up and over Harden who’s at 26.9. Harden will win the scoring title. It’s inevitable that when Durant comes back Westbrook’s averages, across the board, will drop some. Harden will overtake him then. But that is not the point.
Westbrook is in another galaxy at the moment. He’s playing basketball so well that he’s become part man, part ideal. People talk about him like he’s a symbol, like he can change and better this world. They talk like he’s a hero.
* * *
Several million words have been spilled on Westbrook throughout his career and at a certain point we’re all just repeating ourselves, looking for new ways to say the same things that have been true for a while now. It’s his intensity. It’s his relentlessness. It’s his passion. It’s his motor. All of that is still true.
Of course, people didn’t always think this. Part of the world is in state of trying to re-write history when it comes to Westbrook, some acting like they’ve felt this way about him all along. That’s not true. We’re not really that far removed from suggestions that the Thunder would be better with another kind of point guard. One that was less…I don’t know… headstrong? Shouts out to Eric Maynor, the 2011 edition.
Westbrook has flipped the story about him — though it should be said he does not really care what story is told — and in doing so has become the basketball equivalent of Prince. You just sort of accept that he’s the coolest, bow to him, and move on. Being on Twitter during a Westbrook scorcher is an exercise in hyperbole. You realize how many mindless, obvious photoshops this guy wearing a mask has inspired? It’s everyone remixing those Kobe photoshops from back when he had to wear a mask. He is so exciting that people cannot help themselves.
Westbrook is so unpredictable that he renders everything else obvious. He’s just so violent. Durant’s tear last year was an untold amount of fun, he was appointment viewing, but Westbrook’s run has somehow been louder. Durant brought the league to its knees for a month last year. Westbrook is bringing them to their bellies. People get theological when they talk about him. It’s Damascus moment after Damascus moment. He’s changed all our names.
The basketball culture is obsessed with past player comparisons. “Player X is Player Y 2.0.” Always with the 2.0. Westbrook’s an individual in the purest sense. There’s not been a soul like him. He plays how he plays. There will be no ten minute YouTube videos showing that he “stole” moves from someone. The spiritual basketball love child of Vince, Maravich, and Shaq never existed before him. Even that combination short changes Westbrook to a degree. You’d have to throw in some noise. Sam Cassell. Xavier McDaniel. Vernon Maxwell. A megaphone.
If you think that’s over the top, I don’t know, just go home.
* * *
Westbrook is so fun because he’s always challenging a norm. A point guard should not be able to dunk like that, rebound like that, bend a court like that. He’s messing with this talk/debate-show idea/culture that only two people should really be considered for the MVP at a certain point.
Westbrook doesn’t care about the narrative that put Harden and Curry as the two that would duke it out in the headline ring. He’ll just rack up triple doubles, make everyone second guess everything they thought was true, and watch the world burn around him.