On January 10, 2025, the Denver Nuggets won a contest against the Brooklyn Nets 124-105. A routine win for one of the best teams in the league, sure, but it had a little added history alongside it, as Nuggets duo Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook became the first pair of teammates to record a triple-double in the same game twice in a season. At the same time, Westbrook’s 25 points, 10 assists, 11 rebounds, and Jokic’s 35 points, 15 assists, and 12 rebounds made them the first teammate duo to both record 25-point triple-doubles in the same game. It’s not unusual for the star center Jokic, a three-time MVP winner who is triple-double prone, recording one every other game for the most part. Yet the 17-season veteran, Westbrook, recording his third triple-double of the season is where things become interesting.

Westbrook used to be Mr. Triple-Double before Jokic made it seem boring. In fact, a case can be made that Westbrook is still the king of the triple-double statistic, being the all-time leader of the stat, having over 20 triple-doubles over second-place Oscar Robertson, and is the only player besides Robertson to average a triple-double over a regular season. In fact, he averaged the feat four separate times, from the 2016-17 season to 2018-19, and then again during his Wizards run in 2020-21. The man single-handedly made triple-doubles look like an every-game thing. This can be seen through the 2017 MVP campaign, recording a record 42 triple-doubles in one season, and leading an otherwise hopeless Oklahoma City Thunder team to a 6 seed in the playoffs. The Jordan brand commercial commemorating this feat remains a catchy jingle to this day. 

Obviously, the conversation is not about triple-doubles though. It’s the fact that Westbrook’s name is becoming relevant again all of a sudden. His road has been rocky ever since he was traded to the Houston Rockets from the Thunder in the summer of 2019, becoming a duo partner with scoring machine and the reigning MVP at the time James Harden. He took a backroad from being the star player with the ball in his hands on each possession, to becoming a facilitator for a high-scoring offense that did not have the same nitty-gritty passion as Russ’ solo days in Oklahoma City. He would ask to leave Houston that next offseason, wanting to “play [his] game,” and was traded to Washington for their similarly disgruntled star, point guard John Wall. 

The legend of Russ seemed to be fading wildly, yet Westbrook silently averaged a triple-double yet again and helped star guard Bradley Beal bring the Wizards to an 8-seed play-in spot. He would not be chosen to all-star honors, nor any All-NBA teams. He was traded to the LeBron James-led Lakers in the summer of 2021 and became their fall guy and scapegoat for their 33-49 season. NBA fans began to slam him for his lack of shooting ability and his need to fit into the system, forcing him to contain his unique explosiveness on-the-ball. Given away to the Lakers’ neighbors, the Los Angeles Clippers, in the next season, Westbrook became nothing more than a solid sixth man presence, still dazzling fans for his relentless hustle and clutch gene. 

Questions arose of if the now 36-year-old Westbrook was not the player he was his MVP season, and if he had a remaining spot in an evolved league. It almost seemed like Westbrook only shone when he was the number one guy, and this was exemplified the moment he was left alone by longtime teammate Kevin Durant entering the 2016-17 season. Once Westbrook had a taste of a team being “his,” he was stuck to that playstyle.

Or was he? Westbrook would sign with the Denver Nuggets in July 2024, a decision that most fans believe is his final destination in his illustrious career. Yet, if anything, it seems like a rebirth of Westbrook. As Jarrod Prosser of Yardbarker declares, Westbrook is “a man reborn.” The Nuggets needed a sense of leadership and veteran presence for the 2024-25 season, with their last playoff campaign ending in disappointing fashion, losing in 7 games in the semifinals to the upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves. Alongside that, the Nuggets definitely missed their X-factor during their 2023 championship run, in forward Bruce Brown. The New York Times writes, “Denver has long been trying to replace the swagger, the rim pressure and the ability to fly around defensively that Bruce Brown provided during the 2023 NBA title run. Brown brought an edge on the floor that balanced an otherwise mild-mannered lineup, and when he left, the Nuggets of last season weren’t able to find that in anyone else.” In this, they brought in the full-effort-at-all-times Westbrook that will bring the energy each game. Nuggets coach Michael Malone has employed Westbrook into a perfectly designed role, where he creates opportunities for other players and can run the floor without having to take over completely.

All of this goes without saying that Jokic and Westbrook nearly seem like a duo made in basketball heaven. On paper, it’s the modern triple-double man and the guy who made it cool. In practice, Yardbarker states, “They’re both dynamic passers with a gift for getting people open. The way they do that, though, is wildly different. Jokic is a savant who sees angles that nobody else sees. He flings passes to teammates who don’t even realize they’re open. Westbrook, by contrast, applies a ton of force upon the rim, drawing defenses and trusts an instinct for knowing where his shooters are.” They see the floor in different ways, and that leads to better basketball all around, and is a reason Denver has found themselves among the best in the West.

Russ’ reincarnation to the exact type of player that the Nuggets needed shows that Westbrook is not stuck to one type of playstyle and can truly evolve. Yes, his lack of a consistent shooting game is troublesome in an era of the NBA where chucking up shots is encouraged, but he makes up for it in his mentality, effort, and ability to create team chemistry. Westbrook is now up there in age, but he has definitely embraced his team player role. He does not have to be the offense himself anymore, he can simply be the playmaker and floor runner. This is what the Lakers and Clippers wish they could have unlocked within him. Overall, Westbrook never went anywhere, he was just given up on. He’s still here.

“He’s special because of how dynamic he is,” Jokic said of Westbrook, as reported by The New York Times. “He’s able to push the pace and get others involved. You can see how guys run the lanes when he has the ball in transition, because they know if they get open,  the ball is going to find them.”