Russell Westbrook is on the verge of clinching his third straight season of averaging a triple double--an unprecedented feat that is, inexplicably, largely being ignored--and he is doing so with style: during Oklahoma City's 119-103 win over the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday night, Westbrook posted 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists, just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history. As you probably would guess if you did not know, Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to accomplish this, with 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists in Philadelphia's 131-121 win over Detroit on February 2, 1968.
After Westbrook's jaw-dropping performance, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas--serving as a TNT commentator during the "Players Only" telecast--said that in an era of great point guards Westbrook is not mentioned enough. Thomas also declared that Westbrook is the "most dominant" point guard of this era. That is true. No other point guard is equally dominant as a scorer, rebounder and passer the way that Westbrook is. Westbrook can match anyone in the league bucket for bucket as a scorer, he rebounds better than most centers and he has become the league's best playmaker, defying the critics who used to say that Westbrook was a shooting guard masquerading as a point guard.
The best thing about Westbrook, though, is the thing that we should be able to take for granted about pro athletes but is in fact an increasingly rare quality: Westbrook plays hard, all the time. He would agree with Jeff Van Gundy's oft-repeated statement that the idea of "load management" is a load of something else.
Westbrook does not always shoot well (he shot 8-23 from the field versus the Lakers) and he gets too many technical fouls but no matter the circumstance he competes hard. Some of the perimeter players who are putting up gaudy numbers now would not fare so well in earlier eras, but Westbrook is a throwback; he would have fared well in Chamberlain's prime during the 1960s, and during the 1970s, and during the 1980s, and during the 1990s.
This is Westbrook's eighth 15-15-15 game, tying him with Chamberlain for second on the all-time career list; Oscar Robertson--who, before Westbrook made the triple double season an annual occurrence, was for decades the only player to ever average a triple double for a season--holds the career record with 14 such games.
Speaking of 15-15-15 games and underrated/unappreciated players, Westbrook's feat brings to mind one of the most remarkable--and probably least known--playoff stat lines: Rookie Julius Erving tallied 26 points, 20 rebounds and 15 assists as his Virginia Squires defeated the New York Nets 138-91 in game one of the 1972 ABA Eastern Division Finals. Let that marinate for a moment: Erving was a rookie when he posted those numbers in the Eastern Division Finals, while playing for the opportunity to advance to the ABA Finals (Erving's Squires lost that series but he later led the Nets to championships in 1974 and 1976). If a player put up those numbers in the Conference Finals today, the internet might implode--unless Westbrook does it, in which case it will be either dismissed or just ignored.
I understand--but don't accept--that media coverage of basketball is largely driven now by hype and memes and highlights and tweets, but how many NBA players are actually better at playing basketball--at scoring, rebounding and passing--than Russell Westbrook?
Russell Westbrook Joins Wilt Chamberlain in the 20-20-20 Club
