Whatever anyone thinks of Russell Westbrook, man, no one played harder, ever. There have been other maniacs, he's not the only one, but no one gave more effort over more minutes and games and seasons than Russ, and I admired the shit out of that...
Posted on August 12, 2026 at 11:21:19 PM by jjwalker
And yeah, he couldn't shoot, and yeah, he hurt his teams by trying to force it - absolutely true. He wasn't a perfect player by any means. But the people saying he was just "stat hunting" are as far off base as his biggest fans. He was absolutely unstoppable going to the basket and had terrific court vision. He made excellent decisions with the ball (when not taking jumpers, haha).
And his rebounding was fucking *amazing* to watch. Utterly relentless, every second of every game. I'm sure he "hunted" a few triple doubles and whatnot, like all star players do, but that motherfucker earned his place as the greatest rebounding guard in league history.
It wasn't just effort, or explosive hops. He had a real genius for when to attack the offensive glass, and finding where the gaps were. Josh Hart, Podz, Dyson Daniels, Jordan Goodwin, his spiritual descendants.
Great, flawed, fun, hyper competitive, dumb at times but mostly fucking awesome player to watch.
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