Lakers’ Russell Westbrook got what he wanted, but will he capitalize?

EL SEGUNDO — Russell Westbrook is a man of unflinching ritual. His pregame charge toward the crowd, with a beaming smile and a few hearty claps, is as fundamental to his games as the ball or the hoop itself.

But even Westbrook, 32, will feel a surge he’s never felt on Tuesday night, when he steps on the Staples Center court. He’s played 18 games over 13 regular seasons at Staples Center against the Lakers, but for the first time, he’ll don the purple-and-gold threads that he cherished as a child.

It’s a singular experience that even LeBron James said he could “only imagine” for his new teammate. James went through a version of it in Cleveland, and so far, Westbrook hasn’t asked for advice – “he’s well-equipped,” James said. But he added that no amount of anticipation will make it feel like a normal night.

“It will hit him tomorrow, though, differently, no matter how much preparing you can do,” James said. “You can never understand the gratifying moment when you run out of the tunnel actually being a Laker.”

Returning to his home city is something that Westbrook has called a blessing” – one that he asked for when he told the Washington Wizards he wished to be traded to the Lakers. He’s playing with James, one of the most accomplished winners in league history, and Anthony Davis, by his own admission the most talented big man he’s ever had as a teammate.

In short, Russell Westbrook is living his wildest dreams. The pressing question: What will he do with it?

Westbrook enters his 14th season as polarizing a player as there’s been in the last decade. On one hand, there’s the undeniable talent: The triple-double parade that made him the 2017 league MVP. Westbrook has led the league in assists three times in the past four seasons, in part for the same reason Wilt Chamberlain once did: He was criticized for shooting too much.

He walks a fine line, where his fiery competitiveness has given him a “hothead” label. He’s historically a woefully inefficient volume shooter. Since his pairing with Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City ended in 2016, Westbrook has only won one playoff series in five appearances.

If there’s an ideal situation for Westbrook to thrive, he’s probably in it: on the roster of the team he grew up rooting for, playing with two All-NBA-caliber superstars. Westbrook recognizes that, too, noting that he’s been tracking James’ workouts and tips with him in an effort to evolve past the competitive level he’s been stuck at for the last five years.

“I think it’s good because we both understand and know what it takes to be able to win,” Westbrook said last month. “But obviously Bron knows what it takes to get to that next level, and I’m able to kind of learn and understand some things from him along the way.”

Westbrook has often said he’s misunderstood, and his Showtime documentary “Passion Play” is an effort to reshape his story in his own image. In the two-hour film that debuted last weekend, Westbrook aired grievances against sports show talking heads who called him “undisciplined” and “inflexible” and “ego-centric” and “selfish,” and many, many other unflattering terms.

Far from ignoring this noise, Westbrook said, there were times it dug under his skin.

“I’ll be lying to say it didn’t affect me, it didn’t affect my thought process,” he said in the documentary. “It made me pissed off. It made me more competitive. It made me want to go out and do things that nobody’s ever seen been done before.”

From that fury sprang his chase for a season averaging a triple-double, which he’s now done four times. It led further to the all-time triple-double chase, and he finally caught Oscar Robertson last spring to lead all NBA players with 184. All along, his motor and furious attacking style have left no one questioning how motivated he is to be great.

That hasn’t been accompanied by winning in the postseason. The furthest Westbrook has advanced without Durant was in 2020, when he and James Harden were knocked out by the Lakers in five games. The playoffs are when Westbrook has posted some of his least flattering games, shooting under 40% from the field in four of the past five postseasons.

Even Westbrook acknowledged this dichotomy in his documentary: “There’s games where I’m all over the place, and it may not be so good. But there are games where I’m all over the place, and it’s the best thing to ever happen.”

It’s hard to reconcile the rift between the extremes.

Those performances spun Westbrook in a vicious cycle: He’d be criticized by prominent sports media figures – Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith and Colin Cowherd get considerable airtime in “Passion Play” – and then he’d lash out back at them, donning a cross persona in public while quietly performing community service and funding charities just a little further out of public view. To his family, “I’m just Russell,” but he’s allowed few to see what he says is his more natural personality.

His arrival to the Lakers has had a distinctive family feel, quite literally: His parents (Russell Westbrook and Shannon Horton) and brother (Raynard Westbrook) came on stage to stand next to him as he posed with his new No. 0 gold jersey. He’s settled, he’s around his hometown roots, and he’s embraced by his new teammates. In return, they expect him to be spectacular.

“I know coming home is a special feeling,” said Carmelo Anthony, who was Westbrook’s teammate for one season in Oklahoma City. “I had the opportunity to play in New York. And being back in front of family and friends and every night being home home, that’s a big difference. And I think you guys will see that with Russ once he gets going.”
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But the Lakers bring their own brand of media scrutiny, as does being a teammate of James. Westbrook’s ability to withstand what he hears off the court, and the ability to adapt as a player is ultimately what the Lakers have staked their future on. Beyond that, there’s Westbrook’s own legacy to consider – he wants to win a title, and this season with the Lakers might be his best, last chance.

“Being yourself is the best thing you can do, because there’s so many things that can be said about you that can take control of your life,” he said in the documentary. “I feel like when you’re authentic, those things can’t bother you.”

It’s one thing to imagine it. But actually living it, as a Laker, will be something Westbrook has truly never done before.