{"id":812208,"date":"2026-08-13T11:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812208\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:36:13","slug":"russell-westbrook-retires-from-the-nba-with-a-farewell-video-narrated-by-michael-b-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812208\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Westbrook retires from the NBA with a farewell video narrated by Michael B. Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Russell Westbrook<\/a>, the NBA\u2019s career leader in triple-doubles and the 2017 MVP, announced Wednesday he\u2019s retiring after 18 seasons during which he was selected to the league\u2019s 75th anniversary team. <\/p>\n

The two-time scoring champion shared his decision on social media in a post<\/a> featuring a video narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan where the guard never says a word. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you don\u2019t even know when you\u2019ve already watched the end,\u201d Westbrook wrote. \u201cYou had to be there. And now it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Westbrook was the No. 4 pick in 2008 out of UCLA by the Seattle SuperSonics, just before they moved to Oklahoma City. He played his first 11 seasons with the Thunder and spent this past season with the Sacramento Kings. <\/p>\n

Westbrook led the NBA in assists three times and was a two-time MVP of the All-Star Game. He won an Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London Games. <\/p>\n

Westbrook leaves with 209 triple-doubles,<\/a> the last on March 15. Nikola Jokic ranks second in that category with 198 going into this season. Westbrook also holds the NBA mark for most triple-doubles in a season with 42 in 2016-17, when he earned his only MVP award. <\/p>\n

Thunder general manager Sam Presti called Westbrook \u201cthe ultimate competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis internal belief and unbridled fearlessness helped establish the foundation of our organization from day one in 2008 and he elevated the confidence and inspired our community in every year thereafter,\u201d Presti said in a statement. \u201cRussell will be as successful in his life after basketball as he was during his career because his qualities and gifts transfer. His impact on our community is still felt today, and he is beloved for his devotion as much as his talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Westbrook averaged double figures for points and assists in five of six seasons starting in the 2015-16 season. <\/p>\n

Westbrook also played for Houston, Washington, the Lakers and Clippers \u2014 splitting the 2022-23 season between the Los Angeles teams and Denver.<\/p>\n

Last season, Westbrook started 58 of the 64 games he played for Sacramento. He averaged 15.2 points and 6.7 assists. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Russell Westbrook, the NBA\u2019s career leader in triple-doubles and the 2017 MVP, announced Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,2356,18924,2971,355,1063,1756,9601,9600,12205,6402,14828,6404,107154,1839,99,14830],"class_list":["post-812208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-michael-b-jordan","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-ok-state-wire","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sam-presti","tag-seattle","tag-sports","tag-sports-retirements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}