Russell Westbrook’s triple-double season is better than Oscar Robertson’s
By Dean Turner
In the 1961-1962 season, Oscar Robertson was great, but he wasn’t as good as Russell Westbrook has been this season.
Russell Westbrook’s season has officially met Oscar Robertson’s at the pinnacle of Triple-Double Mountain. And now that he’s arrived it’s clear Westbrook’s 2016-2017 season is far more fabled than Robertson’s 1961-1962 season.
Yes that’s right old-timers. Westbrook is currently having a better year than Robertson had way back when. But before you yell get off my lawn, hear me out:
Pace
There are very few basketball fans alive who understand what pace is despite the fact that it’s a relatively simple concept. Pace is defined as an estimate of possessions per 48 minutes. As you can see, it’s nothing earth shattering. So, when comparing across eras — a relatively daunting task — why do more people not consider pace? Plain and simple, it’s easier to just look at raw numbers rather than account for pace and then adjust numbers.
Why is pace so important when comparing Robertson’s spectacle of a season with Westbrook this season? Because, aside from level of competition, the biggest difference from Robertson’s era to Westbrook’s is…pace.
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The 2016-2017 Westbrook-led Oklahoma City Thunder play at a pace of 97.9 meaning per game they get slightly less than 100 possessions. The 1961-1962 Robertson-led Cincinnati Royals played at a pace of 124.9 meaning they got, on average, 27 more possessions-per-game than the present day Thunder.
If you still have no idea what I’m talking about and your head just exploded, let me say it as clear as I can: Robertson had 27 more chances per game than Westbrook to grab a board, score a basket, or dish out an assist. That’s substantial when accumulating statistics.
If we pace adjust Westbrook’s numbers to fit in Robertson’s era they’d look like this:
Now obviously mathematical calculations on paper don’t always translate to real life — word to the Atlanta Falcons — but you get the point. If Westbrook’s team played with the same pace as Robertson’s his numbers would likely be gaudier than they are currently, which is hard to fathom.
Level of competition
In case you’ve never seen 1960s basketball, this is what it looks like:
You can’t tell me Westbrook wouldn’t dunk on every single one of those players and subsequently eat their flesh and blood.
I get it, denigrating 1960s basketball is ignorant and takes a shot at the very bricks the modern game was built on, but not acknowledging that the NBA has made major strides since this era is ignorant as well.
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There’s a little thing called evolution and the NBA experiences the effects of it.
Westbrook is doing what he does against athletic freaks. Robertson did what he did against mostly — there are a few exceptions — players who probably wouldn’t get an NBA look today.
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Ask yourself this: Would Westbrook have much trouble putting up 40 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists — a better stat-line than Robertson — with Bob Cousy or someone of similar stone-age athleticism guarding him nightly?
Russell Westbrook’s 2016-2017 > Oscar Robertson’s 1961-1962
There’s not much left to say. Westbrook has already tied Robertson’s single-season triple-double record and he still has a couple games to go. Is anyone betting against him breaking it? Me neither.
With respect to the Big-O, Westbrook’s season is just flat out better and there’s nothing Robertson can do to combat this assertion aside from hoping his crowd of ardent supporters continue to reassure his greatness of long ago.