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Russell Westbrook sat at a podium after a March game with an apparent air of nonchalance. He looked more focused on his phone charger than the assembled media. As he readied himself to answer questions about a loss against the hapless Pelicans<\/a> that had dropped the Kings<\/a> to a league-worst 14-50 record, that veneer of indifference faded quickly.<\/p>\n In reality, Westbrook had arrived laser-focused on the ensuing confrontation.\u00a0Over the next six minutes, he grilled the local media, criticizing them for providing false context and making judgments without being present for practices or film sessions.<\/p>\n “You don\u2019t know anything about me,” Westbrook told the Kings beat. “But you make a lot of comments as though you do know me, my intent. I see it.”<\/p>\n MORE<\/strong>: Russell Westbrook rips media in 6-minute rant<\/a><\/p>\n For many media members, it was an example of the same old Russ. Back in 2017, Howard Beck, The Ringer\u2019s Senior NBA Writer and president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association, called Westbrook the toughest player to interview<\/a> by a mile.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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 said back then.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beck stood by those comments in a phone call five weeks prior to Westbrook\u2019s Kings rant.\u00a0<\/p>\n “In the course of the time I\u2019ve been covering the league, he\u2019s at a particular end of the spectrum, among the more contemptuous of the media,” Beck told The Sporting News. “I don\u2019t think that\u2019s hyperbolic. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s anything other than an objective assessment.”<\/p>\n Westbrook is correct that few in the media know him. But it\u2019s by his own choice. The side he shows the public and the press is often surly, argumentative, and short. In private, he\u2019s a different man, defined by a borderline-obsessive level of kindness.<\/p>\n Many media members who have been around Westbrook enough have their own personal stories of difficult interactions with the future Hall-of-Famer. Getting ghosted by him is a rite of passage<\/a>. I once spent seven hours in an NBA arena experiencing it myself. And true to form, Westbrook did not respond to an interview request for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s Fred Katz, who covered Westbrook with both the Thunder<\/a> and the Wizards<\/a>, admitted he initially disliked the assignment because Westbrook frequently made the job more difficult. As Katz grew more seasoned though, his opinion completely changed.<\/p>\n Katz and Westbrook still aren\u2019t what anyone would call friendly. \u201cI never thought he really liked me at all,\u201d Katz admitted to me. But the reporter found that there was way more hidden underneath the surface of Westbrook\u2019s gruff exterior.<\/p>\n “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\u2019s a difference between what people say he\u2019s like behind the scenes and what he\u2019s like in front of the scenes,” Katz said.<\/p>\n Katz now lists Westbrook as one of his favorite players to have covered. He\u2019s not alone. While Westbrook was criticized <\/a>by many members of the media after his Kings rant, others quickly sprang to his defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n NBA reporter Cayleigh Griffin tweeted <\/a>that Westbrook was one of her favorite players to cover while in Houston. Sideline reporter Lesley McCaslin echoed those sentiments, noting<\/a>\u00a0Westbrook\u2019s intensity actually made her better at her job. And off-camera, he showed a rare personal touch. When McCaslin was pregnant, Westbrook surprised her by personally selecting a high-end stroller as a gift.<\/p>\n “He\u2019s more human than people would ever think,”\u00a0McCaslin told Sports Illustrated\u2019s Lee Jenkins<\/a>\u00a0in 2016. “He just doesn\u2019t want you to know that.”<\/p>\n Imagn Images <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Where the media sees a wall with Westbrook, teammates see a bridge. Many players who have played alongside him cite him as their favorite teammate ever and someone who brought people together. Clint Capela, who was with Westbrook for only 35 games, is one of them. He called Russ “the most genuine superstar” that he\u2019s ever played with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “Very happy person. Very nice guy,” Capela told me. “Always smiling, always joking around. I was like wow, I never thought that a superstar could also be that great of a guy.”<\/p>\n Capela once noted that he loved an expensive bracelet that Westbrook was wearing. Westbrook immediately took it off his wrist and handed it to him as a gift.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alex Abrines played three years alongside Westbrook. It was a difficult time in Abrines\u2019 career, where he was plagued by loneliness. Abrines told Cope<\/a> that “Westbrook was incredibly kind to me. When I wanted to quit, he took me out to dinner, and it was great.”<\/p>\n Another Oklahoma City teammate, Jerami Grant, echoed Abrines’ beliefs. “He\u2019s just real. He\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n DeAndre Jordan recruited Westbrook to the Nuggets<\/a> last season. He had known Russ for 20 years and called him “one of the most interesting guys in the league. One of the most caring guys.” Jordan saw Westbrook mentoring younger players, taking particular interest in undrafted rookie Trey Alexander.<\/p>\n “He paid for dinners, got clothes for guys. It\u2019s cool to be able to see him give back to guys who really look up to him.”<\/p>\n Westbrook is intensely generous with teammates, but also legendarily disciplined when it comes to his own money.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve seen him a few times during breakfast balancing his own checkbook,” Grant said. “I\u2019m asking him, like bro you doing this yourself?”<\/p>\n Westbrook\u2019s former coach Scott Brooks was once seated in first class on a flight. He saw Westbrook walking back to coach. When Brooks asked why he wasn’t sitting in the front of the plane, Westbrook replied, “For $300 less, we\u2019re going to get there at the same time.”<\/p>\n Westbrook extends his generosity far beyond teammates. Just don\u2019t ask him to talk about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Russ is doing nice stuff, covering up his nice stuff, and then letting his not-nice stuff not be covered up,” Katz says. “It\u2019s a strange dynamic.”<\/p>\n Westbrook gave away both cars that he won as a two-time All-Star MVP to families in need. He\u2019s a regular in children\u2019s hospitals, once surprising a 13-year-old quadriplegic boy in order to fulfill his Christmas wish.<\/p>\n He\u2019s enlisted teammates to help give away Thanksgiving turkeys. He\u2019s donated hundreds of pairs of shoes for kids and meals for nurses during COVID. And he\u2019s done much more that we will never know about.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He doesn\u2019t want a lot of press about it,” Jordan said.<\/p>\n Westbrook is also beloved by NBA staffs. According to Jenkins\u2019 SI profile<\/a>, Westbrook would attend hockey games, soccer matches and piano recitals of Thunder staffers\u2019 children. Every year he would send a pair of Air Jordans and a Jordan-brand sweat suit to each employee.<\/p>\n Grant noted Westbrook taught him to always leave big tips for maids. Dallas Morning News reporter Brad Townsend<\/a> shared a rumor he had heard that Westbrook left an $8,000 tip for housekeepers after the NBA bubble (while also leaving his room virtually spotless).<\/p>\n NBA support staff aren\u2019t guaranteed a share of players\u2019 playoff bonus revenue. It\u2019s up to the guys on the roster to choose how to split up that money. When playoff time came around on the Thunder, Westbrook was the one leading the charge of making sure everyone on staff got a piece.<\/p>\n Westbrook\u2019s connections have stayed strong even years later. Billy Donovan last coached Westbrook in 2019. After Donovan\u2019s father recently passed away, he told the Bulls beat<\/a>\u00a0Westbrook was one of the first people to text him.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He\u2019s always giving. I don\u2019t think a lot of people see that side,” Grant said<\/p>\n So why is Westbrook so kind to those in his orbit yet so negative towards the media? Katz has a theory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “This is my own surmising, but I do think part of the reason is because when you\u2019re so unbelievably competitive and focused all the time, it forces you to find slights in places where there weren\u2019t intentional slights or sometimes no slights at all. It forces you to find those things for extra motivation.”<\/p>\n One time when Westbrook was with the Thunder, NBA writer Chris Herring interviewed him for a feature. Herring asked Westbrook a question, citing data that showed Westbrook driving to the left 73 percent of the time that year.\u00a0Westbrook wasn\u2019t into the question. He took the observation as a personal challenge, spending that night\u2019s game driving right every single time as Herring and others watched in awe from press row.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westbrook wouldn\u2019t be the first star to make up insults to use as motivation. Michael Jordan concocted a story about NBA role player LaBradford Smith saying “Nice game, Mike” after scoring 37 points on him in 1993. Shaquille O\u2019Neal convinced himself that David Robinson snubbed his autograph request as a teenager.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There are times he gets pissed that I understand where he is coming from,” Katz said. “But there are also times where I\u2019m like, ‘Nobody meant anything negative by that, and I don\u2019t think anybody else even interpreted anything negative about that until you brought it up the way you did.'”<\/p>\n Westbrook\u2019s latest rant may have been another example. He claimed reporters were engaging in false narratives. When pressed on what those were, he responded that he didn\u2019t want to get into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that he had legitimate gripes. It\u2019s also possible that he was using the media yet again as fuel for the final stretch of his career. He followed up that rant with one of the best games of his season, a 23-point triple-double in a rare win against the Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was yet another example of the complicated nature of Westbrook. He\u2019s a chaotic and unpredictable force on the basketball court. Off it, he has the most organized locker in the locker room and is never late for anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a draft prospect, he was known for showing up hours early and waiting in his car for workouts to start. He would iron and starch his t-shirts while playing at UCLA. That same sense of order disappears as soon as the whistle blows.\u00a0<\/p>\n Westbrook was once the MVP who was too loud to ignore. Now, in his 18th season, he’s still averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.4 rebounds per game. Yet his performances for the last-place Kings are barely covered, and that’s the way that he wants it.<\/p>\n Westbrook has a right to be upset about false narratives. The one that he shows the least interest in correcting though is the one that rings most true \u2014 he\u2019s secretly one of the nicest guys in the league.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRussell Westbrook’s war with the media<\/h2>\n
Russell Westbrook, the beloved teammate<\/h2>\n
Russell Westbrook’s private charity work<\/h2>\n
Why does Russell Westbrook hate the media?<\/h2>\n