Ish Smith drove in from Charlotte to spend time with the new recruit. He was already committed to play basketball at Wake Forest, but another promising guard in his high school class was visiting all the way from Los Angeles. For all Smith knew, maybe they would follow in Chris Paul\u2019s footsteps together as a backcourt tandem.<\/p>\n
Smith had a pleasant time on the visit. As they hung out, he got to know \u201ca quiet kid from California.\u201d Then, eventually, it was time to get in the gym for a workout with some of Wake Forest\u2019s players. Casual pickup. Nothing serious.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when 17-year-old Russell Westbrook dunked on an upperclassman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ain\u2019t putting no names out there,\u201d Smith said, laughing. \u201cI don\u2019t want nobody catching a stray when they\u2019re sitting at the house chilling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Westbrook ended up choosing UCLA, but he reunited with Smith years later in Oklahoma City and Washington. Smith was a smiling journeyman, Westbrook a scowling superstar. With heightened international exposure, Westbrook\u2019s persona and play style became both wildly popular and controversial. Smith possessed a unique understanding that none of it was for show, none of it was manufactured.<\/p>\n
Everything Westbrook is and was, Smith knew since that day in North Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe temperature could be 40 degrees,\u201d he told The Denver Post. \u201cHe runs at 250 degrees at all times. I love that about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Westbrook turned up the temperature in Ball Arena to 250 degrees on a memorable Saturday night, compiling 16 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals to ignite the Nuggets in a Game 7 romp of his former team.<\/p>\n
It was the culmination of an all-time revenge series. The Clippers dumped Westbrook last summer. The Nuggets collected him off the scrap heap and hoped to embolden him in a bench role \u2014 with Nikola Jokic\u2019s endorsement. \u201cHe\u2019s gonna give you everything he\u2019s got every single possession,\u201d Smith said, \u201cand Joker\u2019s gonna respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Left wide open in the series opener, Westbrook made a game-saving 3-pointer and later added a game-clinching defensive swipe. He acknowledged afterward that he was being intentionally ignored by his ex.<\/p>\n
And he politely declined to go into detail about his opinion of that choice, vowing to return to the topic \u201cafter we take care of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a Clip-eating grin, the 36-year-old point guard accepted the invitation after Game 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they believed that was their best bet of stopping me or taking me out of this series,\u201d Westbrook said. \u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t know what I shot for the series. Somebody has to tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He finished 42% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cDamn, that solid,\u201d he said, feigning surprise. \u201cI guess it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The numbers were phenomenal. But Westbrook\u2019s\u00a0impact on the series transcended them. During Game 6, James Harden buried a step-back 3-pointer over Nuggets guard Christian Braun. Westbrook was promptly in Braun\u2019s ear, giving instructions on how to keep Harden off-balance and prevent him from getting to that shot.<\/p>\n
In their last two wins of the series, Braun and the Nuggets held Harden to a combined 5-of-16 shooting with six turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe the biggest part was Russ,\u201d Braun said. \u201cHe\u2019s played against James. He\u2019s played with James. So (he) kind of knows his game and was telling me what looks to give him, when to give him this look, when to force him right. \u2026 Over the course of the series, I think I got better and better as we went.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game (Westbrook) was hurt, he talked a lot. \u2026 His knowledge is off the charts. It\u2019s fun to learn from him. And it\u2019s pretty crazy. When I did listen to what he was saying, a lot of the things that he was saying did happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, a former Nuggets guard himself, similarly swears by Westbrook\u2019s desire to uplift teammates. \u201cHe has his clothing company, and he\u2019ll make sure everybody has clothes, shoes,\u201d Smith said. \u201cPutting together team dinners. He\u2019s all about camaraderie.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Russell](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/TDP-L-NUGGETS-CLIPPERSAO5_3244x.jpg\")
Russell Westbrook of the Denver Nuggets hangs for a technical after dunking to ignite the crowd during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets\u2019 120-101 series-clinching win over the L.A. Clippers at Ball Arena on Saturday. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
His emphasis on camaraderie can manifest itself aggressively, of course. He yells in the huddle sometimes. He fumes on the bench. He barks in practices and film sessions.<\/p>\n
Since taking over in April, Nuggets interim coach David Adelman has harped on his team\u2019s communication, hoping to locate a healthy measure of tension when necessary without it being excessive. Westbrook is the arbiter of that theme.<\/p>\n
And by the same token, Westbrook\u2019s intensity as a brand of basketball can function for good or evil or somehow both at any given moment. He recognized that paradox himself after Game 7, offering one of the most clear-eyed and good-humored encapsulations of the Russ Roller Coaster ever shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ability to be a force of nature on the floor is what I pride myself on,\u201d he said. \u201cSo whatever that looks like. It may be a turnover. It may be a missed shot. But it may be a steal. It may be a dunk. It may be a missed three. It may be a made three. It\u2019s gonna be all of that. It\u2019s gonna be everything. So you just take it for how it comes, and whatever happens, you go with it. \u2026 As long as I leave it on the floor, and god willing (I can) go out and continue to compete, I\u2019m grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nuggets\u2019 first-round matchup was a delectably bitter form of serendipity for Westbrook. Their second-round opponent is a more sentimental form of it. He remains beloved in Oklahoma City, where he won an MVP award and where Denver tips off a new series Monday (7:30 p.m. MT). Westbrook did face the Thunder in a playoff setting once \u2014 but in the sterile environment of the 2020 bubble.<\/p>\n
No audience. No standing ovations. No jeers. None of the collective adrenaline and anxiety that Westbrook harnesses more chaotically than any NBA player this millennium. That stuff is his oxygen.<\/p>\n
When he plays to the crowd, when he exalts after a dunk or an interception or an alley-oop pass, it\u2019s as if he\u2019s entering a spiritual state. He insists he is actively thinking in those moments, though, that \u201cas much as people may not think (it), I\u2019m very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what was he thinking during his most grandiose out-of-body experience yet as a Denver Nugget?<\/p>\n
After picking Ivica Zubac\u2019s pocket in the middle of a 30-point blowout, Westbrook galloped for an easy dunk then used the rim as a playground. That\u2019s an automatic technical foul. But Westbrook celebrated it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was about to get off the rim backward,\u201d he explained, \u201cthen I just said, \u2018Nah. I\u2019m gonna just stay up here and try to break the rim.\u2019 And then the tech came.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter. No amount of technical fouls could change the result. The Clippers were in the palm of Westbrook\u2019s hands, and the temperature was rising past 250 degrees.<\/p>\n