Russell Westbrook's career highlight sizzle
A feature on Russell Westbrook's amazing career filled with dunks, dimes, and historic moments.
Russell Westbrook entered the league as part of one of the best young cores in NBA history and won the 2016-17 MVP Award as the last piece of that core still in Oklahoma City.
Eventually, he too moved on. But he never found another home where he was nearly as effective as he was with the Thunder. And after 18 seasons in the NBA, Westbrook has announced his retirement.
His value went well beyond the historic numbers that he put up. But here are 18 numbers to know about Westbrook’s 18-year career…
All stats are for the regular seasons, unless otherwise noted.
Career numbers
1. Westbrook is one of two players – LeBron James is the other – that rank in the top 15 all-time in total points (14th), assists (fifth) and steals (14th).
2. He’s the all-time leader with 209 regular-season triple-doubles. When you include postseason, he had 221 triple-doubles, tied with Nikola Jokić for the most in NBA history.
3. He accounts for four of the seven seasons in NBA history where a player averaged a triple-double. His 2020-21 season with the Wizards was the only season in NBA history where a player averaged at least 11.5 rebounds and 11.5 assists per game.
4. He’s one of three players in NBA history – Luka Dončić and Oscar Robertson are the others – to have averaged at least 20 points, six rebounds and eight assists over their career.
5. His 9,025 career rebounds are the most for a guard in NBA history.
6. He’s one of four players in NBA history – James, Jokić and Larry Bird are the others – to have averaged at least 20 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists over 100 playoff games or more.
Assisting, but not assisted
7. Westbrook’s 2,077 assists on dunks are the second most for any player in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data, just 32 fewer than Chris Paul’s 2,109. Westbrook had 11 seasons where he had at least 100 assists on dunks, the most for any player in those 30 years.
8. His 2,875 assists on 3-pointers are the fourth most for any player in those 30 years, with his 13 seasons with at least 100 assists on 3-pointers tied for the fourth most.
9. Westbrook was assisted on less than a third of his own field goals in each of his first 15 seasons. But he was assisted on 47.6% of his field goals over his last three seasons, more than double his rate through his first 15 (23.7%).
Paint attacker
10. Westbrook’s 12,094 career points in the paint are the most for any guard in the 30 years for which we have shot-location data. He had 15 seasons of at least 500 points in the paint, also the most among guards, with only three other guards – Dwyane Wade (14), Tony Parker (11) and Allen Iverson (10) – having at least 10 such seasons.
11. Wade (1,119) is the only guard with more dunks than Westbrook (708) over the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data.
12. His 5,616 fast break points are the second most for any player in the 30 years in which fast break points have been tracked.
High volume, low efficiency from deep
13. Westbrook is one of 11 players with at least 1,000 made 3-pointers and at least 5,000 made free throws in his career.
14. The last two seasons of his career were the only two seasons where Westbrook had an effective field goal percentage above 50%.
15. Over his career, Westbrook shot 30.8% from 3-point range, the third-worst mark among 310 players with at least 2,000 3-point attempts. He shot worse than the league average from 3-point range in all 18 of his seasons.
16. In his final season, he took 45.2% of his shots from 3-point range, easily the highest rate of his career. He took just 41% of his shots in the paint, which was the second lowest rate of his career. The only time he had a lower rate (39%) was his MVP season in 2016-17.
On and off the court
17. Over his 11 seasons in Oklahoma City, the Thunder were 5.1 points per 100 possessions better with Westbrook on the floor than they were with him off the floor. Over his seven seasons after leaving Oklahoma City, his teams were 2.3 points per 100 possessions better with him off the floor than they were with him on the floor. In both cases, the bigger difference was on offense.
18. In 17 of his 18 seasons (all but 2012-13), his team played faster with him on the floor than they did with him off the floor. Over his last 13 seasons, his teams averaged 3.5 more possessions per 48 minutes with him on the floor (102.4 per 48) than they did with him off (98.9 per 48).
***
John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
