RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Russell Westbrook , a nine-time All-Star and the 2017 NBA MVP, announced his retirement after 18 seasons in a social media video on Wednesday. Westbrook, 37, was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. He played for seven different franchises and finished his career as the NBA's all-time leader in triple-doubles with 209.
"Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end," Westbrook wrote as the caption to a video narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan, which was posted to his social media channels. "You had to be there. And now it's over."
Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end. You had to be there. And now it’s over. pic.twitter.com/6YoOW8WyIV
Westbrook, a member of the NBA's 75th anniversary team, made nine All-NBA teams (two first-team selections, five second-teams and two third-teams), won two All-Star Game MVPs and two scoring titles and led the league in assists three times. He is one of three players, along with Oscar Robertson and Nikola Jokić, to average a triple-double for an entire season, and did so four times. No one else has done so more than twice.
In 1,301 career games with the Oklahoma City Thunder , Houston Rockets , Washington Wizards , Los Angeles Lakers , Los Angeles Clippers , Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings , Westbrook averaged 20.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 8.0 assists. He is 14th on the all-time scoring list (27,176 points), fifth in assists (10,351), and is one of two players (along with LeBron James ) to top 25,000 points and 10,000 assists in their career.
Early in his career, Westbrook teamed up with Kevin Durant and James Harden to turn the Thunder -- who moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle ahead of Westbrook's rookie season -- into one of the most exciting teams in the league. They made the Western Conference Finals in 2011, then the Finals in 2012 when Durant and Westbrook were 23 and Harden was 22. Though they lost to James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat , everyone assumed it was just a matter of time until the Thunder won a title.
But due to injuries, personality clashes, cheap ownership and the rise of the Golden State Warriors , the Thunder never even got back to the Finals. Harden was traded after the 2012 Finals, and their hopes in 2013 were dashed when Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first round of the playoffs when Patrick Beverley dove for a steal while Westbrook was calling a timeout.
Westbrook ended up needing multiple surgeries on his knee during the offseason, then another one during the season and was limited to 46 games in 2013-14. He returned for the playoffs, however, and helped the Thunder reach the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the Spurs .
Both Westbrook (broken hand) and Durant (broken foot) missed extended time in 2015 and the Thunder missed the playoffs. It seemed as though the Thunder would finally get back to the Finals in 2016 when they took a 3-1 lead on the Warriors in the West Finals, but they blew the lead -- in part because Westbrook shot 28 of 76 (36.8%) in the final three games, including 10 of 27 in Game 6 at home when they let a 13-point lead slip away.
Durant left to join the Warriors in free agency in the summer of 2016, clearing the way for Westbrook's MVP campaign in 2017 and his stretch of three consecutive seasons averaging a triple-double. But Durant's exit hurt the Thunder's hopes of contending. By 2019, Westbrook was gone too, traded to the Rockets to team up with Harden again.
That began the final phase of Westbrook's career. Though he remained a productive player, he didn't contribute to winning and teams rarely kept him around. He played for six teams over his final seven seasons and only played more than 100 games with one of them, the Lakers.
On the international level, Westbrook won gold medals with Team USA at the 2010 World Championship (now World Cup) and 2012 Olympics.
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