RealGM

RainCity wrote:Am I the only one who notices that Russ really doesn't pass the ball during the 4th quarter, especially during close games? Shot after shot after shot, against the Suns, same story, against the Blazers, same story, against the Bulls, same damn story. I fear it's going to start alienating his teammates. Maybe this loss to the Bulls has me being overly critical, but I think it's probably for the best that his streak ended. I want the Russ that played against the Pacers. I'm venting. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the tear Russ has been on just as much as everyone else, but at some point as a true fan you have to be honest and critical of your own star players, even if it's not the popular thing to do. Someone calm me down, or tell me why I'm wrong or tell me of you agree, it doesn't matter, I just need to know what others are thinking. Thanks and Im sorry for the rant.

- RainCity

In 2004, UCLA hosted a small-time AAU event that Bruins coaches were not allowed to attend. But a tournament organizer charged into the basketball office at the Morgan Center and hollered, “There’s some little 5'10" kid flying around Pauley Pavilion like a bat out of hell!” That was Russell Westbrook, bat out of hell. Much has changed since then—his body, his style, his stat line—but not his spirit. He is still the 16-year-old striver whose parents worked at a bread factory and a school cafeteria. On the balcony of the family’s South L.A. apartment, they installed a dip bar over a sandbox, and Westbrook did pull-ups until his arms throbbed. He grew into a spring-loaded UCLA sophomore who declared for the draft and tried to break the rim in his audition with the then Sonics. “His wrists,” says trainer Rob McClanaghan, “were red afterward.” Where Westbrook once bounced off gym walls as a way to inspire his younger brother, Raynard, he now works up the same lather because the sports world is watching, waiting, holding its breath for the kinetic feats of Maniac Russ.

Westbrook’s superpower is hard to measure or define. Nick Collison probably comes closest. “His give-a-f--- level,” the Thunder forward says, “is very, very high.”

Last fall Westbrook watched a video of his reactions to plays positive and negative. He noticed how the Thunder responded to his body language for better and worse. “Let’s say a teammate turns it over, and I’m screaming and moving my hands, you can see in his face that he let me down,” Westbrook explains. “And then, on the next play, you can see the lack of confidence.” The opposite was also true. When he celebrated a teammate for hitting a shot, another bucket often ensued. “I saw how my energy can bring the group very high or very low,” Westbrook says. “It was a huge thing for me, a great thing.” He shared his observations with coach Scott Brooks, a former point guard. “Even if the guy should have caught the pass, you have to take the heat,” Brooks says. “You have to take the blame. You have to tell him, ‘My bad.’”