After 18 years in the NBA, Russell Westbrook has finally decided to hang it up. When someone does something for that long, it is hard to easily elucidate their career. However, if forced to do so, the one word that perfectly describes Westbrook's time in the association would be: polarizing.
On one hand, he's a former MVP, the undisputed triple-double king, a two-time scoring champion, and three-time league leader in assists. But, on the other hand, he dominates the ball like few before him ever have, could never figure out his outside shot (30.8 percent from 3 for his career, and, for five of the last seven years of his career, his teams were worse when he was on the floor.
However, no matter what your stance on Westbrook's career may be, there is one thing that is without a shadow of a doubt. It may not be the first time his name shows up on the ballot, but Westbrook will be in the Basketball Hall of Fame someday.
The case for Westbrook as a Hall of Famer
Let's start by looking through all his accolades. In 18 years, Westbrook managed to make nine All-NBA teams, nine All-Star teams (winning the All-Star MVP twice), and, as we mentioned before, he was the Most Valuable Player in the league in 2016-17.
As of right now, there are zero players who have made the All-Star game nine times or more who are eligible to be in the Hall of Fame (you have to be retired for at least five years) and are not in it. For those wondering, Larry Foust is the unlucky individual who carries the designation of having the most All-Star appearances without making it to Springfield, Massachusetts.
Basketball-Reference does a great job of taking all these career achievements and consolidating them down to one number. They call this their Hall of Fame Probability metric. And according to this measure, Westbrook has a 99.9 percent chance of making it to the Hall of Fame.
I also believe that the last few years have served to make people forget about just how good Westbrook was in his heyday. From 2012 to 2017, Westbrook finished in the top 12 in the entire NBA in Dunks & Threes' Estimated Plus-Minus (arguably the best one number metric on the market). From 2014 to 2017, he was top eight in this metric.
When you combine that type of peak with Westbrook's longevity (he gave his teams roughly a decade of All-Star level play), you have a recipe for Hall of Fame impact.
Westbrook was never the best player in the NBA. He never got to hoist the Larry O'Brein Trophy like so many other greats do. And the box score probably inflated his value a bit, especially at the tail end of his career. But Westbrook is a surefire Hall of Famer, whether you like it or not.
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