Russell Westbrook – Epic season in review
By Rich Condon
‘Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.’ – Woodrow Wilson
Last year’s offseason feels like ancient history by now, but it’s still an essential part in telling the story of Westbrook’s historic season. Of course, it all started with Kevin Durant’s departure to the Golden State Warriors.
Well, technically, it started with Sam Presti’s trade of Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic on draft night, but that’s not nearly as impactful as Durant’s leaving. The Thunder acquired Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, and Ersan Ilyasova (who was flipped for Jerami Grant) in exchange for Ibaka.
However, KD leaving cast a pall over the entire season. Remember, too, in the days after KD left, there were rumors of Russell Westbrook being on the trade block, to prevent him from leaving for nothing in return as well.
However, Russ assuaged all doubt when he inked an extension with the Thunder, cementing himself as the Hero of OKC. Unfortunately, the rest of Russell’s merry band had seen few, if any, playoff battles. For the most part, they were still training to be warriors (not like the Golden State kind, like the Beowulf kind, it’s part of the metaphor, okay?).
Most pundits expected the Thunder to regress from their 55-win mark of last season. Which they did, but not nearly as drastically as most thought prior to the beginning of the season. However, perhaps because of this, Russell was motivated to prove he could, and would thrive in the post-Durant era.
This is his team now, and he was going to set the NBA (and Twitter) on fire, one snarl-inducing dunk at a time. The NBA was an unwalled, unguarded, and unprepared village, and Russ was ready to burn it all down.
If this were a movie, upon learning of Durant’s departure, Russ would deadpan the camera and say “Now I do what I want.”