NEW YORK — Be yourself, Russell. Just be yourself.
That was the message LeBron James had for the MVP of the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, and you know what? There aren’t that many people bold enough to say what LeBron said about Russell Westbroook.
Don’t get me wrong … there are plenty of people with plenty of opinions on the guy who wears a zero on his uniform for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Stuff like: “Stop shooting so much.” Or: “Give the ball to Kevin Durant and get out of the way.” Or: “You are a point guard, play like one. Stop being a ball hog.”
You’ve heard all of those lines before if you have spent even the slightest bit of time keeping up with the Thunder, the team that cannot seem to break through despite having more individual talent than any other team in the Western Conference over the past half-decade.
It seems like for every great game Westbrook plays, there are two in which he does something that leaves himself open to criticism. And that has indeed been the case quite a few times, for quite a few years.
But All-Star MVP Westbrook is not getting any younger, the window on Oklahoma City’s championship opportunities is closing — especially with Durant becoming an unrestricted free agent two Julys from now — and the time for Westbrook to carry what he did Sunday night into the remainder of this NBA season is now. Right now.
Westbrook entered this game as a member of the ninth-best team in the Western Conference. Yes, the Thunder are only a half-game out of that eighth and final playoff spot in the West, and I have maintained all season long that they’ll be A-OK by the time the regular season ends, capable of knocking off anybody in the West.
But the playoffs in that conference are going to be a beast, and a one-man show in OKC ain’t gonna get it done. If that team wants to get back to where they were in 2012 — playing in the NBA Finals — they are going to need a whole lot more of the Russell Westbrook that we saw Sunday night. A guy who put up 41 points, one shy of the All-Star game record set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962, and a guy honest enough to admit that he tried to miss his final free throw — perhaps to run out the clock; perhaps to get the ball tapped back to him for a bucket that would have tied Wilt’s record.
“The East was trying to get me to miss the first one,” said Westbrook, who rainbowed his second attempt. “I tried to miss the second one, but I guess I just couldn’t miss tonight.”
This weekend should go down as a mid-stage career coming out party for Westbrook, one of the sharpest dressers in the NBA and whose appearance during an All-Star Weekend that coincided with Fashion Week in New York brought out something special in him.
Get this: In the Saturday edition of the New York Times, there was not one single word about the Rookie Challenge game featuring first- and second-year players from around the world playing against first- and second-year players from America. Not one word. But there was coverage of the NBA’s Celebrity Game, including a wonderful euphemism for Sarah Silverman’s excuse for running off the court just prior to tipoff (a gastrointestinal issue, although that was not the phraseology Sarah used), along with a photograph of four high-heeled legs belonging to a pair of synchronized swimmers who were performing in a behind-the-bar pool visible to the patrons of an upscale SoHo club that was playing host to a fashion event headlined by Westbrook. (As a home delivery customer, I notice these things.)
Anyway, funny thing about Westbrook — he is known as much for his fashion sense as he is for his court sense. Ask any NBA player who the best-dressed player in the league is, and a majority will answer with Westbrook’s name.
But you know what?
You ask those same NBA players who is the best guy in the league at beating people off the dribble and finishing with flair, and they’ll also bring up the same name: Russell Westbrook.
Nobody will tell you he is the best point guard in the NBA.
But the most explosive? Yep.
And the most criticized? Yep, that too.
Westbrook entered All-Star Weekend with a shooting percentage of .431 overall and .281 on 3-pointers. Those are anything but elite shooting numbers. But he also is averaging 25.8 points, just one-tenth of a point less than Durant, and is February shooting percentage numbers are .484 and .391, with a back-to-back of 45 and 48 in a home-and-home series with the Pelicans — one of the many teams the Thunder have leapfrogged in the West since their 3-12 start. Since Westbrook returned in Game No. 16, Oklahoma City is 24-13.
So they’ll get where they need to go, but what will Westbrook do differently this postseason after the criticisms of him reached a fever pitch a year ago in OKC’s flameout against the Spurs in the conference finals?
If you ask LeBron, which I did, the answer is …
“Be Russell Westbrook. Stop caring about what everybody else thinks. He doesn’t have to change.”
I pressed LeBron on what he meant by that — caring about what everyone else thinks.
“Just be yourself,” James said, repeating himself. “That’s all. That’s all that matters. Russell Westbrook is one of the best gifted talents this game has ever seen. And he goes out every night and proves that and shows that. I don’t need to tell him anything. He’s doing great.
Well, he did great Sunday. No questioning that.
But can he replicate his 16-for-28 shooting, including 5-for-9 from downtown, when it is not an exhibition game? When it is not 7 degrees outside? When his fashion sense and his talent are not equally newsworthy?
The Thunder’s future, both immediate and long-term, is riding on it.
If Russell can be himself, and this is the himself that we can expect to see on a more consistent basis, maybe the Thunder can actually win the championship they need to win in order to keep Durant from leaving Oklahoma City two summers from now. But first, maybe Westbrook needs to listen to James. Stop worrying about what people say. Just do what you do — and do it with the same aplomb shown Sunday night.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.