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.
Lebron. Used to like the guy and everyone hated on him, especially Lakers/Kobe fans. Of course now they love him 😂 For me, when he flopped and antagonized Dray to get him ejected in the finals, then had his team complain harshly he needed to be suspended when the NBA was considering not suspending him out of technicality. I lost respect for the guy. The best players and “Goats” in the league wouldn’t want to win in this manner. Why would you want to win this way? He also tried to get Erik Spoelstra fired, among other coaches. Never won anything without one or two top superstars in the NBA. He wants all high salaried veterans on his team unless you’re a very talented rookie. He will trade you away. He’s never been a skilled shooter. Still to this day, he can only drive and run through players for and ones and cry for fouls all the time. Always been great at flopping too, hence people call him LeFlop. Despite all the above, the media talks like he is better than MJ or other greats