The Russ Life
Russell
Westbrook is a young, athletic, and explosive guard in the NBA today.
He is one of the best players in the league, but his success did not
come so easy. He grew up in California and at high school he attended Leuzinger
High for four years. As a kid Westbrook was always known to be smaller
or skinnier than everyone else. So he grew up playing sports with a huge
chip on his shoulders. In other words nothing came easy for him and he overworked in everything he did.
Growing up Russell Westbrook had a best friend he did everything with. His name was Khelcey Barrs and he was a basketball star growing as a kid. Barrs was naturally a big kid and got more graces than Westbrook did. Early into high school he was a over six foot 200 pound kid. While Westbrook was a measly 5-8 140 pound kid. The two basketball addicts shared a common dream, to attend UCLA and make it big in the NBA. Both players encouraged each other both on and off the court. Khelcey took more recognition than Russell did and was labeled the best high school player in the nation. For a skinny and small kid like Russell that encouraged him to push harder and become better than Khelcey. A tragedy hit Russell Westbrook as his best friend, Khelcey Barrs, died from an enlarged heart before his senior year of high school. Russell took his friend's lost hard and he dedicated his entire work ethic to Khelcey Barrs in honor of him. The summer before his senior year Russell Westbrook completely changed, everything he did he worked twice as hard and did it in honor of his friend whether it was basketball, school, or even house work. With barely any recognition just a year earlier Westbrook returned his senior year to LeuZinger high and became a dominant player. He clearly isolated himself to be labeled the best player on the team. During that year he averaged over 25 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assist, and 3 steals. His dream finally came true and Westbrook received a recruiting letter from UCLA later on that same year. He accomplished that dream not only for him but also for his best friend Khelcey Barrs. Starting off his freshmen year in college Westbrook believed he was to start from zero ground and work his way up. Which is why he changed his basketball number to 0. He started off as a backup for NBA point guard Darren Collison in UCLA. He only averaged under 3 points and under 1 assist and rebound per game. Ongoing to his second season though Russell Westbrook improved his stats greatly. Due to an injury on Darren Collison Westbrook became the new starter for the UCLA point guard position. He finished that season averaging over 12 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Deciding to only stay two years in college Westbrook entered his name in the NBA Draft. In the year 2008 Russell Westbrook entered his name in the NBA Draft. He was drafted in the first round as the fourth overall pick, which is a lottery pick in the NBA. The Seattle SuperSonics, later known as the Oklahoma City Thunder took in Russell Westbrook with high hopes for the young point guard. Russell Westbrook started off his rookie year extremely exciting for the young thunder team. He averaged 15 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. In that year he finished fourth overall for the rookie of the year voting. But one huge accomplishment he attained was that he was the first rookie, since nba guard Chris Paul, to record a triple double and the third rookie on the thunder team franchise to ever record one. As Westbrook continues his NBA career the critics hit hard at his game play. Many people put a huge chip on Russell Westbrook's shoulders as he plays basketball and the critics did a good job at that. They believed the young guard was not fit to be a point guard or he takes too many shots for a guard. And many people wondered why he would do so when he has the Thunder Superstar Kevin Durant on his team. People believed that Durant was not getting the ball enough, specifically from Russell Westbrook. But Westbrook never cared what people said about his game, his goal was to be the best point guard to ever play the game. He believed that the point guard position could be played many a ways and it was not just about passing. His coaches, managers, and team mates, Kevin Durant especially, seemed to have had no problem with the way Westbrook played. And that was all that mattered to him. Time after time again, after becoming an All-Star and winning many awards Russell Westbrook finally had a shot at the NBA Finals Championship in 2012. Averaging 23 points and 5 assists Westbrook and Thunder's top player, Kevin Durant, took their young team to the finals to face the Miami Heat. The series seemed to be an extremely tough one for the Thunder and Westbrook mainly. In a seven game series Westbrook started out in a Game one win for the Thunder. He scored 27 points and attained 11 assist on top of that. That gave the Thunder a good feel for the finals and a good start. Unfortunately the young team could not feed off of that game one energy. They went on to loose the finals in game 5 to the Heat in a 4 to 1 sweep. Many critics blamed the bad outcome on Westbrook's performance. Especially in game 4, when he recorded his career high of 43 points. In the following season Westbrook and the Thunder ended with a very successful season. He helped Durant lead the team to the number one spot in the Western Conference. In just the second game of the first round playoffs Russell Westbrook suffered from a knee injury. He ignored the pain and played through it finishing the game with 29 points. The doctors later evaluated and proclaimed that he had a tear in his meniscus in his right knee. Later given surgery Westbrook was ordered to sit out for the rest of the playoffs and no longer continue his season. That experience hurt the Thunder's chances of getting past the second round of the playoffs. During his recovery Westbrook suffered a second knee injury, which postponed his return to the court. He did not attend the first two games of the knew season and was limited to minutes played on the court when he was able to play. On the NBA Christmas day special he recorded a triple double with 14 points, 10 assist, and 13 rebounds. The day after Christmas Westbrook had another surgery on his knee and was out for quite a while. He returned to the court on February 20th and sat out the second games of back to back scheduled games. In the previous season Westbrook and the Thunder started off with much bad luck. Together they had what some would say an injury prone season. With the reigning MVP, Kevin Durant injured, Westbrook was now looked at as the face of the Thunder. Very early in the season though Westbrook had a small fracture in his right hand. With both superstars , Westbrook and Durant, out the Thunder suffered to stay a competitive team. After missing 14 games Westbrook returned in November with a 32 point game win for the Thunder against the Knicks. With many more struggles coming for the Thunder Westbrook seemed to turn into a whole other play with Kevin Durant out again indefinitely. In the All-Star game Westbrook came off the bench and scored a almost record breaking 41 points, with 42 points being the highest ever scored in a All-Star game. He attained the All-Star MVP, which was highly deserved. After the All-Star break Westbrook's game became phenomenal. During this time he attained the nick name triple double machine. Westbrook was setting records in the NBA nightly and his sudden out burst put him in the top 4 for the NBA MVP race. During his outburst Westbrook again got injured. He fractured his right cheek bone in a game against Portland. Returning shortly after that, though now playing with a mask Westbrook's streak did not stop. He came back better and stronger than ever. Now attaining the nickname 'The Mask Murderer'. Though the Thunder was struggling to stay in the 8th spot of the conference they ended up not making it. Westbrook ended the season wining the scoring title averaging 28 points. He was not happy with the award though, the only thing he wanted was to make the playoffs. He plans to come back next year injury free with a healthy Thunder team and to be a competitor for the NBA title. |
|