Russell Westbrook is the most versatile player in NBA history

Sports fans do recognize a historic season.  A triple crown in baseball being the most honored jewel in America’s pastime.  Basketball, the professional brand, the triple-double has become the standard of a baseball triple crown.  There will never be a player in the NBA to lead the league in scoring, assists, and rebounds in one season.  It will never happen.  Taking nothing away from the significant individual performances of the greats on great teams (Bill Russell, for an example in his championship seasons in Boston), Russell Westbrook is doing his thing in 2016-2017 on a just so-so Oklahoma City Thunder squad, abet a playoff contender that should get the sixth spot in the Western Conference.  Westbrook is having a season for the ages, averaging the second only triple-double (points, assists, rebound in a game) in Association history, with almost ten minutes less playing time than the incomparable Oscar Robertson.  The “Big O” accomplished the feat over fifty five seasons ago (1961).  What we are seeing in Westbrook’s season is astonishing and will set the bar for the triple-double for the next fifty five years.

A record that most fans that follow the NBA said would never be approached, Westbrook tied Mr. Robertson’s total of 41 triple-doubles last night in the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.  It was a blowout win for the Thunder over the Milwaukee Bucks.   Westbrook’s 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 13 assists now gives Westbrook five more attempts to surpass the record, the  first being tonight in Memphis against the Grizzles.  42 is just a matter of time.  Westbrook, not only tying the record for triple-doubles in a season,  is the leading scorer in the league and has his Thunder with a 32-9 record when he gets the statistical benchmark of a individual game.  For stat keepers, that is a winning percentage of .780, which is nearly 20 points higher than their .571 winning percentage for the entire season.   Westbrook is the reason OKC wins.

The list of lists for Westbrook in 2016-2017:

1. 41- Triple-doubles
2. 57-  Most points in a triple-double
3. 100-  Highest shooting percentage in a triple-double
4. 7-  Longest streak in triple-doubles this season (can be eight after tonight)
5. 27- Teams that Westbrook as had a triple-double against this year
6. 31.5/12.9/12.7- Westbrook’s averages in triple-double performances
7. 7/2: 40-point/50-point triple-doubles by Westbrook this season

For a great article on the above list please go to:  http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/russell-westbrook-ties-oscar-robertson-with-41-triple-doubles-by-the-numbers/

Feature Photo: AP Sue Ogrocki