In his best moments, the former MVP remains one of the most electrifying forces in the NBA. So why is he still a free agent?
ByTres Dean
October 15, 2025
Russell Westbrook Deserves Better Than This
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For the first time since 2008, the NBA season might tip off without Russell Westbrook. After spending a year with the Denver Nuggets that saw him develop a reliable partnership with superstar Nikola Jokic, the mercurial point guard decided to opt out of his contract this summer, purportedly due to the Nuggets’ lack of a plan for him going forward. Given his stature in the league and his solid play in Denver, Russ likely expected to find other suitors. Instead, we’re less than a week out from tipoff and Westbrook remains a free agent.
In his prime, watching Westbrook charge down the court felt like watching a Mack truck plow into minivans, that rare hooper whose dunks seemed like they’d separate rim from backboard. He averaged a triple-double three seasons in a row in Oklahoma City and ran the feat back a fourth time with the Wizards during the 2020-2021 season. Russ was a two-time scoring champion, an MVP, and a nine-time All-Star. Those who called his style of play selfish were quick to forget that he led the league in assists in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
It feels like I’m writing a eulogy. It shouldn’t. Russell Westbrook isn’t dead, nor has he officially retired or suffered any sort of career-ending injury. He’s 36 years old—hardly a spring chicken but far from the typical sell-by date for star players. He’s not injury-prone, and while he’s no longer averaging a triple-double, he still has plenty to contribute to an NBA team. Westbrook would be the first to admit he’s not a first option anymore; in fact, he did as much during his tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2023-24. Upon realizing the four-man setup of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, and himself wasn’t gelling like it should, he offered to come off of the bench and lead the second unit. In his 2024-25 campaign with the Nuggets, he proved a killer set-up man for Nikola Jokic as Jamal Murray endeavored to return from injury.
Over the years, Westbrook has become a controversial figure and a regular punching bag of the NBA media. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it started, but the Russ slander ran especially hot during his admittedly disastrous tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2021 to 2023. The team hoped he could complete a Big Three alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Long story short: It didn’t work, which came as little surprise to any real ball knowers. Westbrook’s heliocentric approach always seemed like an ill fit for a Lakers lineup that needed him to be a third option. It was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved: Westbrook was stuck floundering in a system ill-suited for his style of play, while the Lakers burned through a season and a half of late-career LeBron with nothing to show for it. His reputation amongst casual NBA viewers and Lakers fans—two groups that, in this writer’s somewhat biased opinion, share significant overlap—has never quite recovered, despite his on-court efforts improving considerably once he left the franchise.
Westbrook is far from immune to criticism, of course, and he didn’t leave Denver on the best note. After opening strong in the Nuggets’ second-round series against the eventual champion Thunder, he bottomed out in indefensible fashion, averaging 21% from the 3-point line and only managing six points in a Game 7 drubbing. His big personality can, at times, be grating on and off the court and he does struggle to fit into more democratic systems of play. Perhaps the biggest knock on late-career Russ is that he’s streaky. This is a guy who dropped 29 on the Thunder in the regular season, and then got held to single-digits against them during the playoffs more than once. That same player threw up a measly 5 points against the Clippers in December, only to be the deciding factor that secured the Nuggets the win against them in a seven-game playoff series. Performances like the latter are why GMs pay players—but they need to know they’re going to be getting what they’re paying for.
Despite this, Russ has by all accounts a good reputation in NBA locker rooms. Last week, while addressing rumors of a potential reunion in Houston with his former OKC running mate, Kevin Durant said: “I think he deserves to be in the NBA right now. I think he deserves to walk out of the NBA on his own terms. Yeah, [a reunion] would be dope.” Earl Watson—another of Westbrook’s former teammates, who now serves as an assistant coach at the University of San Diego—recently deemed Russ “the most misunderstood player in the league.” Allen Iverson has long called Westbrook the player who most reminds him of himself, and while he’s mostly referring to Brodie’s style of play, it’s hard to not notice the parallels in how fans and media treated both players during their respective careers.
What Russ lacks in consistency he makes up for in durability and veteran savvy—and even his biggest detractors would never deign to call him lazy. On a bad night, he’ll hustle like hell for 15 minutes off the bench and at least wear the opposing squad down. On a better one, he’s a spark plug that can supercharge a team’s engine from a V8 to a V10. There are a number of teams who lost point guards to injury in the last year, from Durant’s Rockets to the Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, or Milwaukee Bucks. The Sacramento Kings have long been rumored to have interest, and there were brief rumors that the Celtics might tap him. Russ isn’t a player you want to prioritize over developing a young point guard, but he could absolutely make for a solid second option while they get their minutes in. And for teams staring down seasons that already don’t seem to count in the absence of star players, he’s a Hail Mary option with the potential for a high reward at a bargain rate.
It’s a strange and sad fate for a player of his caliber to have lost a game of musical chairs this summer—especially with what seems like a real abundance of chairs, even this late into the offseason. Then again, when I think about Russell Westbrook, what I often find myself thinking about is the dignity with which he’s always carried himself. Russ is a Los Angeles legend, born and raised in the working-class city of Hawthorne. He’s a guy who made good on his potential, playing for UCLA and eventually making it to the league, but would never say he “got out.” Everything Westbrook does comes back to Los Angeles. His charitable endeavors stretch beyond eponymous foundations and summer youth camps. He rides for LA harder than most athletes who wear the city’s name on their jerseys. When he wins, it is not “for” the city. It is with it. In 2021, responding to criticism over his lack of an NBA championship, Westbrook said, “I was a champion once I made it to the NBA…I don’t have to be an NBA champion. I know many people that’s got NBA championships that’s miserable, haven’t done nothing for their community, haven’t done nothing for the world…I’m not gonna play basketball my whole life. My legacy is what I do off the floor.”
If this seems like an emotional way to write about an athlete, I’d argue that Russell Westbrook is an emotional player and that chalking up his worth to a statline is akin to describing a Rothko painting as a couple of red squares. I understand finding a player frustrating, but I feel for those who say they love hoops but don’t understand Russell Westbrook. I will take chaotic joy over detached consistency ten times out of ten. Plenty of guys can put a team on their backs and lead them to a championship. Plenty of guys make it to the top and seem like they’ll stay there forever. But the further you climb up the mountain, the thinner the air gets. It gets harder to fill your lungs with oxygen. You get disoriented. You forget the path that got you up there to begin with when the only direction you know is up. Every June, we see players reach the peak. It’s a far rarer thing to watch someone climb the mountain, navigate every detour and diversion, and not once lose track of the path back home.