Posted on 05/13/2021 5:35:16 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Sometimes you don’t know how good a star player is until he comes to a team you follow. That’s certainly true if you’re only a casual fan of his sport, as I am these days when it comes to the NBA. But it can even be true if you follow a sport closely, as I did when Robbie Alomar came to the Baltimore Orioles and blew me away with his all-around excellence.
Back to the NBA, let’s consider the case of Russell Westbrook, who yesterday broke Oscar Robertson’s record for career triple-doubles (double digit points, rebounds, and assists in a game). When the Wizards acquired Westbrook this past off-season, I knew he was a star. However, I largely subscribed to the standard critique of his game — inefficient shooter (too many misses per shot), too many turnovers (among the 50 players with the most turnovers in NBA history, all of them stars to be sure, Westbrook ranks first in turnovers per game), too much hogging of the ball.
The criticism that his teams haven’t won a championship, and often have been eliminated quickly in the playoffs, didn’t resonate much with me. Plenty of great players have been unable to coax their teams to great playoff success. Besides, the Wizards weren’t gunning for a championship. Getting to the playoffs would constitute success for them.
It did seem to me, however, that Westbrook’s flaws had come to the fore in several big playoff games I watched over the years. I suppose that’s natural when you’re playing against great teams late in the playoffs, but the game’s very best players deliver most of the time in these circumstances.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
Good for Russ but I have watched zero NBA games since LeFraud went on his rant about America while kissing Chicom butt.
What is the NBA? The Nothing But A$$holes league where they run up and down a court and put a spherical piece of leather in a basket? /sarc
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