The Westbrook Effect
Two irrational characters that have become unfortunate additions to the sports world recently are The Stan and The Hater. The Stan, alluding to the infamous character created by Eminem on The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, is a type of unabashedly zealous superfan, detached from reality. The Hater, best portrayed in Dave Chappelle’s The Playa Haters’ Ball, is one who just throws out hate hate, hate hate hate, hate hate, hate hate hate, hate hate, hate hate, and hate. Both The Hater and The Stan are irrational, illogical, and worthy of scorn.
The Stan and the Hater cannot see an athlete beyond their surface level. However, the problem with that mentality is that athletes are so much more than what we perceive them to be on the court. I am not talking about their personal lives, per se, as this is not a deep dive into how great a Samaritan any athlete is or how loving they are as a spouse or parent. No, we are talking about a player’s effectiveness on the court when the stat sheet does not reflect it at a surface level.
More specifically, I am talking about a player whose team would have sunk into oblivion was it not for his leadership, fight, and unwillingness to quit. Russel Westbrook has some of the most loyal Stans and Haters of any player in the league, and to be quite honest, the Haters need to go ahead and hand this man his flowers, while the Stans need to not engage in disingenuous dialogue.
On Friday the 18th of February, the NBA announced the starters for the 2021 All-Star Game. This year, there was one name that jumped out to me the most; Bradley Beal. During the 2019–20 shortened season, there was a lot of lobbying by teammate John Wall and head coach Scott Brooks for Beal to be named to the All-Star team. Fellow NBA players agreed with Wall and Brooks by voicing their displeasure with the snubbing of Beal. So much so that Beal was ranked second in the player vote among Eastern Conference guards. Players knew he deserved an All-Star nod, but unfortunately, the chips didn’t fall in his favor.
This story is not about Bradley Beal’s success in becoming a starter for the 2021 Eastern Conference All-Stars. Beal has played in two All-Star games already, but he is a starter this year and is playing some of the statistically best basketball of his career. I attribute Beal’s jump in production to the Wizard’s addition of one of the league’s most underrated players and the one with the most Stans and Haters, Russell Westbrook.
Russ is having a blah year by Russ standards: 19.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 9.7 assists per game on 42/28/60 clips. The almost triple-double average is the closest to vintage Russ we’ve seen, but overall, this is a down year. Stans, listen up; when you are great like Russ has been for years, your floor rises, so a 19.9/9.7/9.7 season is considered a down year when you previously routinely averaged 27 points per game. With Russ fighting nagging injuries and coming off another knee procedure this summer, he begins the inevitable decline we see from even the most athletic players. Take a look at Blake Griffin; he needs to participate in a Freaky Friday ritual with Anthony Edwards or something (that dunk, SHEEEEEEESH). What Russ lacks in athleticism (believe me, Russ still has a lot of that going for him), he more than makes up for with leadership and impact on the court. Beal is an excellent example of Russ’s influence as he is playing the best basketball of his career right now, averaging 32.7 ppg while shooting 48% from the field on 24 shots a game. These statistics are not what you would see from a player playing with a “ball hog” teammate. Russ is doing what he can to force-feed the ball to Beal and place Beal in the best position for success. Haters will tell you the opposite of that about Russ, but if you ask teammates and front office personnel, they are all always impressed with Russ’s leadership on and off the court.
Paul George decided to stick around in Oklahoma City after being traded to the Thunder on an expiring contract by signing a 4-year max contract. That next season, Russ rewarded George by force-feeding him the ball so much that George had a career year and was in the running for both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Russ seems to do that for his teammates. Haters believe that Russ is a bad teammate and that players get better when they leave his team, all while not considering the words these former teammates say about Russ.
Russ has proven he is the ultimate teammate, and this season solidifies that fact. The Washington Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard was very impressed with his leadership, something you would not see at the game’s surface level if you’re only looking at statistics. Even when someone authors an article about Russ, he seems to take a back seat to his teammates’ accomplishments. With his push to get Beal into the MVP candidate conversation, just like he did for Paul George in OKC, you have to get past the surface-level hate and appreciate the real Russell Westbrook.
