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.
Kobe had the opposite effect on me than LeBron. I never liked Kobe but after awhile I had to respect him and started liking him especially because of how he finished games all or nothing LeBron I liked then I started looking at him differently after the Orlando loss in the semis and seeing him continue to shy away from big moments then the “I’m taking my talents to south beach” happened and it’s never been the same since