The hidden side of Russell Westbrook: NBA’s most hostile interview is also his kindest teammate

Russell Westbrook sat at a podium after a March recreation with an obvious air of nonchalance. He appeared extra targeted on his cellphone charger than the assembled media. As he readied himself to reply questions on a loss towards the hapless Pelicans that had dropped the Kings to a league-worst 14-50 report, that veneer of indifference light shortly.

In actuality, Westbrook had arrived laser-focused on the following confrontation. Over the subsequent six minutes, he grilled the native media, criticizing them for offering false context and making judgments with out being current for practices or movie periods.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Westbrook instructed the Kings beat. “But you make a lot of comments as though you do know me, my intent. I see it.”

MORE: Russell Westbrook rips media in 6-minute rant

For many media members, it was an instance of the identical previous Russ. Back in 2017, Howard Beck, The Ringer’s Senior NBA Writer and president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association, called Westbrook the toughest player to interview by a mile.

“He just oozes contempt for the media, or at least for the interview process. His answers are often clipped and condescending, frequently defensive, and occasionally hostile,” Beck mentioned again then.

Beck stood by these feedback in a cellphone name 5 weeks previous to Westbrook’s Kings rant.

“In the course of the time I’ve been covering the league, he’s at a particular end of the spectrum, among the most contemporary of the media,” Beck instructed The Sporting News. “I don’t think that’s hyperbolic. I don’t think that’s anything other than an objective assessment.”

Westbrook is right that few within the media know him. But it is by his personal selection. The side he reveals the general public and the press is typically surly, argumentative, and brief. In personal, he is a special man, outlined by a borderline-obsessive stage of kindness.

Russell Westbrook’s conflict with the media

Many media members who’ve been round Westbrook sufficient have their very own private tales of troublesome interactions with the long run Hall-of-Famer. Getting ghosted by him is a rite of passage. I as soon as spent seven hours in an NBA enviornment experiencing it myself. And true to kind, Westbrook didn’t reply to an interview request for this story.

The Athletic’s Fred Katz, who lined Westbrook with each the Thunder and the Wizardsadmitted he initially disliked the task as a result of Westbrook regularly made the job tougher. As Katz grew extra seasoned although, his opinion fully modified.

Katz and Westbrook nonetheless aren’t what anybody would name pleasant. “I never thought he really liked me at all,” Katz admitted to me. But the reporter discovered that there was far more hidden beneath the floor of Westbrook’s exterior gruff.

“I started to realize from a character perspective, this is one of the most interesting characters in the history of the NBA. He is a one-of-one human being. There’s a difference between what people say he’s like behind the scenes and what he’s like in front of the scenes,” Katz mentioned.

Katz now lists Westbrook as one of his favourite gamers to have lined. He’s not alone. While Westbrook was criticized by many members of the media after his Kings rant, others shortly sprang to his protection.

NBA reporter Cayleigh Griffin tweeted that Westbrook was one of his favourite gamers to cowl whereas in Houston. Sideline reporter Lesley McCaslin echoed these emotions, noting Westbrook’s depth truly made her higher at her job. And off-camera, he confirmed a uncommon private contact. When McCaslin was pregnant, Westbrook stunned her by personally choosing a high-end stroller as a present.

“He’s more human than people would ever think,” McCaslin told Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins in 2016. “He just doesn’t want you to know that.”

Russell Westbrook, the beloved teammate

Where the media sees a wall with Westbrook, teammates see a bridge. Many gamers who’ve performed alongside him quote him as their favourite teammate ever and somebody who introduced folks collectively. Clint Capela, who was with Westbrook for under 35 video games, is one of them. He known as Russ “the most genuine superstar” that he is ever performed with.

“Very happy person. Very nice guy,” Capela instructed me. “Always smiling, always joking around. I was like wow, I never thought that a superstar could also be that great of a guy.”

Capela as soon as famous that he cherished an costly bracelet that Westbrook was sporting. Westbrook instantly took it off his wrist and handed it to him as a present.

Alex Abrines performed three years alongside Westbrook. It was a troublesome time in Abrines’ profession, the place he was suffering from loneliness. Abrines awning Cope that “Westbrook was incredibly kind to me. When I wanted to quit, he took me out to dinner, and it was great.”

Another Oklahoma City teammate, Jerami Grant, echoed Abrines’ beliefs. “He’s just real. He’s a real person. And he cares about all his teammates. He tries to understand who you are as a person and pushes you to be the best.”

DeAndre Jordan recruited Westbrook to the Nuggets final season. He had recognized Russ for 20 years and known as him “one of the most interesting guys in the league. One of the most caring guys.” Jordan noticed Westbrook mentoring youthful gamers, taking specific curiosity in undrafted rookie Trey Alexander.

“He paid for dinners, got clothes for guys. It’s cool to be able to see him give back to guys who really look up to him.”

Westbrook is intensely beneficiant with teammates, however also legendarily disciplined in terms of his personal cash.

“I’ve seen him a few times during breakfast balancing his own checkbook,” Grant mentioned. “I’m asking him, like bro you doing this yourself?”

Westbrook’s former coach Scott Brooks was as soon as seated in top notch on a flight. He noticed Westbrook strolling again to teach. When Brooks requested why he wasn’t sitting within the entrance of the aircraft, Westbrook replied, “For $300 less, we’re going to get there at the same time.”

Russell Westbrook’s personal charity work

Westbrook extends his generosity far past teammates. Just do not ask him to speak about it.

“Russ is doing nice stuff, covering up his nice stuff, and then letting his not-nice stuff not be covered up,” Katz says. “It’s a strange dynamic.”

Westbrook gave away each vehicles that he gained as a two-time All-Star MVP to households in want. He’s a daily in youngsters’s hospitals, as soon as shocking a 13-year-old quadriplegic boy with a purpose to fulfill his Christmas want.

He’s enlisted teammates to assist in giving away Thanksgiving turkeys. He’s donated tons of of pairs of sneakers for youths and meals for nurses throughout COVID. And he is accomplished far more that we are going to by no means learn about.

“He doesn’t want a lot of press about it,” Jordan mentioned.

Westbrook is also beloved by NBA staffs. According to Jenkins’ SI profileWestbrook would attend hockey video games, soccer matches and piano recitals of Thunder staffers’ youngsters. Every yr he would ship a pair of Air Jordans and a Jordan-brand sweat go well with to every worker.

Grant famous Westbrook taught him to at all times depart massive ideas for maids. Dallas Morning News reporter Brad Townsend shared a rumor he had heard that Westbrook left an $8,000 tip for housekeepers after the NBA bubble (whereas also leaving his room just about spotless).

NBA assist employees aren’t assured a share of gamers’ playoff bonus income. It’s as much as the blokes on the roster to decide on how you can cut up up that cash. When playoff time got here round on the Thunder, Westbrook was the one main the cost of ensuring everybody on employees received a bit.

Westbrook’s connections have stayed sturdy even years later. Billy Donovan final coached Westbrook in 2019. After Donovan’s father just lately handed away, I told the Bulls beat Westbrook was one of the primary folks to textual content him.

“He’s always giving. I don’t think a lot of people see that side,” Grant mentioned

Why does Russell Westbrook hate the media?

So why is Westbrook so sort to these in his orbit but so adverse in direction of the media? Katz has a idea.

“This is my own surmising, but I do think part of the reason is because when you’re so unbelievably competitive and focused all the time, it forces you to find slights in places where there weren’t intentional slights or sometimes no slights at all. It forces you to find those things for extra motivation.”

One time when Westbrook was with the Thunder, NBA author Chris Herring interviewed him for a function. Herring requested Westbrook a query, citing knowledge that confirmed Westbrook driving to the left 73 % of the time that yr. Westbrook wasn’t into the query. He took the remark as a private problem, spending that evening’s recreation driving proper each single time as Herring and others watched in awe from press row.

Westbrook would not be the primary star to make up insults to make use of as motivation. Michael Jordan instructed a narrative about NBA function participant LaBradford Smith saying “Nice game, Mike” after scoring 37 factors on him in 1993. Shaquille O’Neal satisfied himself that David Robinson snubbed his autograph request as an adolescent.

“There are times he gets pissed that I understand where he is coming from,” Katz mentioned. “But there are also times where I’m like, ‘Nobody meant anything negative by that, and I don’t think anybody else even interpreted anything negative about that until you brought it up the way you did.'”

Westbrook’s newest rant might have been one other instance. He claimed reporters have been participating in false narratives. When pressed on what these have been, he responded that he did not need to get into it.

It’s attainable that he had official flu. It’s also attainable that he was utilizing the media but once more as gas for the ultimate stretch of his profession. He adopted up that rant with one of the very best video games of his season, a 23-point triple-double in a uncommon win towards the Bulls.

It was one more instance of the difficult nature of Westbrook. He’s a chaotic and unpredictable pressure on the basketball court docket. Off it, he has the most organized locker within the locker room and is by no means late for something.

As a draft prospect, he was recognized for displaying up hours early and ready in his automotive for exercises to begin. He would iron and starch his t-shirts whereas enjoying at UCLA. That similar sense of order disappears as quickly because the whistle blows.

Westbrook was as soon as the MVP who was too loud to disregard. Now, in his 18th season, he is nonetheless averaging 15.5 factors, 6.5 assists, and 5.4 rebounds per recreation. Yet his performances for the last-place Kings are barely lined, and that is the way in which he desires it.

Westbrook has a proper to be upset about false narratives. The one which he reveals the least curiosity in correcting although is the one which rings most true — he is secretly one of the nicest guys within the league.