Russell Westbrook Retires From The NBA After 18 Seasons
Russell Westbrook announced his retirement from the NBA Wednesday evening, posting a three-and-a-half-minute video on social media narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan in which he never appears on camera and never speaks a word.
"Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end," he wrote. "You had to be there. And now it's over."
He was 37. He had offers, minimum deals from the Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards, and chose to walk away instead. He played 1,301 regular-season games across seven franchises: the Thunder, Rockets, Wizards, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets and Kings.
He averaged 20.9 points, 8.0 assists and 6.9 rebounds. He won the 2017 MVP after averaging a triple-double for an entire season, 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists, the first player to do it since Oscar Robertson in 1962.
He did it again the next two seasons. He holds the NBA record for career triple-doubles with 209.
He is fifth all-time in assists. He is 14th all-time in scoring. He was selected to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
He never won a championship. He made the Finals once, 2012, with Durant and Harden, losing to LeBron's Miami Heat. The ring did not come. Everything else did.
The screen at the end of the video read: "The greatest thing he left behind couldn't fit inside a museum."
