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.
I think the sixers stuff was kinda crappy on his behalf but I don’t think he was wrong about Houston and Brooklyn. Houston didn’t have much left by the time he was traded, not really his fault they wouldn’t trade him. Brooklyn was tough too because he did all the right things but then had Kyrie squander it all away, meanwhile KD was hurt like 65% of the time.
Philly did their best to accommodate him and brought in a coach who would’ve utilized him pretty well. He kinda just bailed on that because Morey wouldn’t pony up the super max (which he doesn’t really deserve).