The retirement of Russell Westbrook has created shockwaves across the sports world for one of the top basketball faces of the 2010s ending his career. NBA fans have got used to legends like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry playing at a high level into their late 30s. Westbrook had fallen into a reserve bench role to see him retiring before most of his era’s top stars.
Other top superstars of the 2010s like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard have no close end date in sight. Westbrook was the first of this era’s defining superstars to hang it up. Sports pundit Skip Bayless stated that he’s under the belief that Westbrook retired earlier than he wanted to in an effort to protect his average career stats.
The commentary from Bayless was more noteworthy for fans and fellow basketball personalties taking offense to Skip saying Westbrook should not be a Hall of Famer. However, the throw away line about the reason for retirement presents a more interesting talking point.
Westbrook agreeing to a much smaller role over the past few seasons caused his career averages to drop. Bayless believes that Westbrook retired to protect his current averages and not cause them to sink any lower. The Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings both offered Russ roles that he turned down.
Why Russell Westbrook Might Have Retired For Stats
Bayless’ point does have some logic behind it when looking at the situation of Westbrook retiring. Sacramento wanted Westbrook to play fewer minutes as a mentor for rookie guard Darius Acuff, who will get about 30 minutes per game as the new franchise point guard.
Washington offered a similar role, but he’d have had the chance to play with more proven stars like Trae Young and Anthony Davis. The problem is that both roles would have ended with Westbrook player fewer than 20 minutes per game.
Westbrook would have likely put up career low stats if he played for another season. Few players have had Westbrook’s peak as an MVP winner for the Oklahoma City Thunder and had to fall to a role player role for so long. The past four years have seen Westbrook fighting to get rotation minutes for various teams.
Breaking Down Russell Westbrook’s Career Stats
The belief that Westbrook feared his stats averages dropping even lower makes more sense when examining his stats. Everything fell apart when the Wizards traded Westbrook coming off a triple double average to the Los Angeles Lakers. A terrible fit saw Westbrook’s reputation taking a hit and never repairing it.
Westbrook Career Stats: 20.9 points, 8.0 assists, 6.9 rebounds per game
Westbrook Stats Over Past 5 Seasons: 14.9 points, 6.4 assists, 5.8 rebounds per game
A clear decline showed that Westbrook’s stats suffered from falling into role player territory over the past five seasons following the Lakers move. The Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets each benefited from having Westbrook off the bench on their playoff rosters. Westbrook willingly took the lesser role, but it appears he’s reached the end of that road. Finishing with a career average of 20+ points and 8+ assists is quite impressive.
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