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.
Probably Lebron. His playoff failures early on made me think he was going to top out at something like T-Mac’s level. All time great player but not in the realm of people like Jordan, Magic, Bird, Hakeem, Shaq or Duncan (earlier players in this tier too probably but I didnt see them play). Even the victories with the Heat didn’t change my mind on him. Just thought he got better teammates who could pick up the slack for him. Looking back that was a mistake but probably because I just hated the heat (Bulls fan). The Cleveland and LA titles (but especially the Cleveland run) changed my mind on him. Doing what he did to beat the Warriors and then hang with them in those others finals, despite already being a little past his physical prime, was amazing.
In the other direction, Vince Carter. If you had asked me in 2000 who was going to be the better player between Vince, Kobe and T-Mac, I would have said Vince. He was a better shooter than either of them, and was stronger than Kobe without giving up anything to him in athleticism (maybe was even more athletic). And in the end its not even close between him and Kobe, and wouldn’t be close between him and T-Mac if McGrady hadn’t declined early because of injuries.