Over the next week or so, I'm sure there will be about 500 articles, tributes, explainers, think pieces, and all that other fun stuff about Russell Westbrook's legacy, and the close of Oklahoma City's promising, fun, thrilling and ultimately-never-100%-fulfilling basketball trilogy that featured three MVPS and some other fantastic stars. This article, and a tribute to Russ that Lucas is working on for next week, will be a couple of them.
Like most people who were born and raised in Oklahoma City, own Thunder season tickets and try to watch every game on TV, I am a Russell Westbrook fan. Although he could be frustrating to watch at times, he was a spectacular player, good dude, and not a soft turncoat who took the easy way out and sabotaged the franchise. His MVP season was an incredible joy to watch. I appreciate everything he's done for Oklahoma City and wish him the best of luck in Houston with the guy we should have probably kept over him – James Harden.
Naturally, a good portion of the OKC social media echo chamber was cluttered with sad emoji reactions about the move. I can't blame them. Although the trade – along with the Paul George move – was great for OKC's basketball future, and hits the reset button on the good-but-not-great purgatory the team was stuck in, it's bittersweet to see Russ go. Who cares that he is just a professional athlete, primarily lives in California, and only played basketball here because he was drafted by the Thunder franchise in 2008. He was the undisputed king of OKC hoops (after Kevin and James bolted), and stuck with us when he had massive financial incentives to do so. For that, we shall be forever grateful.
As a result, I decided to play to the OKC Twitteratti crowd and get their ideas and suggestions for things we should name after Russ immediately.
Because I'm lazy and don't want to spend another hour writing this, here are some replies:
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Anyway, thanks for all the great (and occasionally frustrating) memories, Russ. Best of luck in Houston. Go Thunder!
