{"id":2239,"date":"2022-12-04T19:42:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T19:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2022-12-04T19:42:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T19:42:52","slug":"russell-westbrook-makes-second-return-to-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/04\/russell-westbrook-makes-second-return-to-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Westbrook makes second return to D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There\u2019s not one Wizards fan who can forget the day that Washington made one of the most shocking moves in franchise history. In fact, it was the evening of December 2, 2020 when the rumors turned out to be true\u2026the Washington Wizards traded <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/wizards-john-wall-era-comes-to-abrupt-end\/\">star point guard John Wall<\/a> to the Houston Rockets for former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the one-year that Westbrook suited up in a Wizards uniform, he broke records and changed the identity of the team. Now he will return to Capital One Arena on Sunday, December 4 when the Wizards face the Los Angeles Lakers, almost exactly two years after the groundbreaking Wall\/Westbrook trade occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westbrook\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/wizards\/news\/should-the-wizards-bring-russell-westbrook-back-to-dc\">lone season in Washington<\/a> was a historic and successful one for the franchise despite having a losing record of 34-38. The Wizards made the playoffs as the 8th seed in the East but would lose to the #1 seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round 4-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westbrook posted his 4th and last triple-double season with 22.7 points per game, 11.5 rebounds per game, and 11.7 assists per game while with the Wizards. Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson&#8217;s triple-double record of 181 while in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Russell Westbrook on the triple-double record and accomplishing what many deemed impossible: \u201cIt\u2019s something I never would have dreamed about this as a young kid growing up in L.A. I don\u2019t usually pat myself on the back but tonight I will.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DCAboveAll?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DCAboveAll<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y8bgQoM5EM\">pic.twitter.com\/Y8bgQoM5EM<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaritaCParks\/status\/1391955612725129216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Coach Brooks on Russell Westbrook: \u201cThere\u2019s no one in the history of the game that can do what he does throughout the stat sheet. He\u2019s going to go down as the second greatest point guard in history behind Magic Johnson.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DCAboveAll?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DCAboveAll<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/G6aLs3F2D5\">pic.twitter.com\/G6aLs3F2D5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaritaCParks\/status\/1389424201933770757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In his introductory Wizards press conference, Westbrook made it clear that he doesn\u2019t play any games on the court: \u201cWhen I\u2019m on the floor, I don\u2019t have any friends. I\u2019m not trying to be friendly. I don\u2019t have time for it and I\u2019m never changing that.\u201d<br><br>Westbrook\u2019s competitive energy also rubbed off on his teammates. Former Wizard coach Scott Brooks (now assistant coach for Portland Trail Blazers) noted that Westbrook has a hard exterior that is widely misunderstood but he ultimately wants the best for his teammates and they respond to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former Wizards guard Garrison Mathews (currently with Houston Rockets) supported that perspective, crediting Westbrook with helping the team level up during that 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve watched him play a lot over his career and one thing I\u2019ve always admired about him is his intensity and his fire,\u201d Mathews said. \u201cWhen you have a guy that plays that hard, it\u2019s contagious and helps everybody get out of that soft mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His presence also gained the respect of his backcourt partner Bradley Beal who looked at him as a mentor because of his proven record in the NBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRuss brings a definite focus and persona about himself that resonates with the rest of the team,\u201d Beal said. \u201cYou have no choice but to feed off his energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t seem like these vibes have followed him to Los Angeles. Since the move, he is now in a bench role and the Lakers are just an overall mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westbrook\u2019s return to D.C. might just be a breath of fresh air for the nine-time All-Star who is at least appreciated by Wizards fans that had the opportunity to witness several historic moments in his career the one season he lit up Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russell Westbrook will make his second appearance at Capital One Arena with the Lakers, almost exactlty two years after the groundbreaking John Wall trade. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wizards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Westbrook2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2243,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/2243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}