Russell Westbrook drops the mic and calls it a day!For months, speculation had swirled over where he would continue his career, with several NBA teams linked with him, while a move to the Euroleague was also mooted. In the end, however, the 37-year-old put an end to all the rumors by announcing his retirement.
After a two-year college career at UCLA, Westbrook was selected fourth overall in the 2008 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, who were relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder just six days later.Alongside Kevin Durant, he was part of the star-studded OKC team that failed to dethrone LeBron James and the Miami Heat, but nevertheless etched its name in NBA history.Westbrook spent 11 years in Oklahoma City before embarking on a nomadic journey around the league in search of a title.
The iconic NBA franchise is set to change hands for a record $12.5 billionAfter leaving the Thunder in 2019, he played for six different franchises – the Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and Sacramento Kings – over the following seven years, but fell short of his ultimate goal, never becoming an NBA champion.
Although team success eluded him, Westbrook’s career was filled with individual accolades. He was the 2017 NBA MVP, a nine-time NBA All-Star, NBA scoring champion in 2015 and 2017, and NBA assist leader in 2018, 2019, and 2021.”Russell Westbrook has passed his way into NBA history.”
He won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA at the 2012 London Olympics and was a world champion two years earlier.Westbrook still tops the NBA’s all-time triple-double list with 209 triple-doubles in 1,301 games, while also averaging a triple-double over a full regular season four times.
Although his final seasons were not quite at the level we had come to expect from him, his legacy will forever be etched in the history of the game.