As Westbrook approaches record, bizarre Russ hate remains

I realize these are not real basketball fans in the comic above. In fact, they’re entirely fictional. What has been very real, however, is the bizarre hate for what Russell Westbrook is doing on the basketball court this season. Also, people have sent this picture to me several times claiming that I look like the man on the right. I’m undecided if I agree.

I use the word bizarre to describe the downplaying of Westbrook’s season because of the near 60 years of awe and reverence the sports world has had for Oscar Robertson’s tripe-double record. It’s important to note that this is all viewed through the lens of the MVP discussion, and I think fans and talking heads alike would have a much sunnier view of this feat outside of that. But shouldn’t this be celebrated regardless? Perhaps Westbrook is treading a bit too close to sacred ground for some people’s comfort.

Most interesting to me is that some very credible people are having to jump through hoops to find reasons not to give Westbrook the MVP award (looking at you, Zach Lowe and the True Hoop analysts.) Stat padding rebounds? Triple-doubles don’t matter? When did we start throwing these things out of the window? These arguments seem a bit like goalpost moving for the sake of continued discussion, when in reality, I think this race has been over for a while.