Westbrook was never one of my favorite players during most of his prime, but seeing how Westbrook has handled his last few years helped me gain a lot of respect for him.
Sure he never was the lead guy on a championship team, but his competitiveness is amazing. He played his best through all the Lakers drama. Westbrook also put up 37 in a playoff game in the most recent playoffs. I’m quite a huge fan of this late-career Westbrook.
Kobe - when I first started following the NBA as a kid, Kobe was the player I liked to root against. Near the end of his career I had nothing but love for him.
Duncan was a “sneaky athlete” but not in the racist “that white guy can actually jump” kind of way, but in a "“he only moves as fast or jumps as high as he needs to in the moment” so he would randomly turn up his speed and surprise the opponent by being just a little quicker or jumping a little higher than they expected, allowing him to make a play they may have avoided if they were more accustomed to his actual athleticism.
John Stockton played like this as well. He was known for his longevity over athleticism but when you go back and watch clips he absolutely had a turbo button when he needed it.
Athleticism is insanely hard to guard against when you don’t know when you opponent is going to actually use it
“racist” 😭😂