On Monday, the NBA announced that Washington Wizards guard Russell Westbrook was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month in May 2021. Westbrook averaged 26.3 points, 16.1 assists and 13.8 rebounds per game in nine contests. This is Westbrook’s ninth overall player of the month award, his first since Dec. 2017 when he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Westbrook didn’t just average a triple-double in May. He averaged one for the 2020-21 NBA season and averaged a triple-double in FOUR of the past FIVE NBA seasons. The narrative around Westbrook is that he is a stat-hogger, looking to hog rebounds, the hardest stat for a guard to get, at any cost. And he was also averaging close to a triple-double when the Wizards were left for dead in the first half and even for much of the second half to this season.
I don’t disagree that Westbrook is a stat-hogger to some degree. But after seeing the Wizards’ performance this past month, do you seriously think that Westbrook’s triple-doubles have led to a string of Wizards losses?
Just saying.
Go Russ and GO WIZARDS!