2012 NBA Finals: Westbrook against himself

Before entering this NBA season, it was a wonder if Russell Westbrook would be the Oklahoma City Thunder's Point Guard. With talks of trades and frustrations with teammates as well as fans over Wesbrook's shoot first, pass second point guard game play, many believed something had to change. Last year at this time the Thunder were sitting at home watching The Finals and one could not stop to think, including Westbrook, that if he could simply PASS more the Thunder would be in The Finals.

Fast forward to this year now and the OKC Thunder are in NBA's biggest stage, The Finals. With the Thunder being the favorite to win this year I can't help but think from the Thuder's loss; that the only thing stopping the Thunder with all their many weapons is Westbrook himself. Not the Big 3 on the Miami Heat team, but Westbrook.

Now don't get me wrong I love Westbrook and his aggressive offense. This player is an All-Star in this league and he has many years to come with proceeded stardom. Although, if this Thunder organization is looking to form a Michael Jordan Bull's like Dynasty that we saw in the '90s it all lives and dies with Westbrook. He needs to do his job as a point guard, he needs to pass.

But I can hear you all now, “but Westbrook's got 27 points two night in a row; in fact last night he shot forty percent from the field - he is doing his job.”

Well that's great but as a point guard in the NBA your job is to be the General of your team, to feed your superstar Kevin Durant and friends the ball - not to rack up points. What we saw last night was the classic, “don't look now, here goes Westbrook pulling up jumper after jumper trying to get HIS, while the rest of the team's hold their hands out waiting for a pass.” If the Thunder continue to get the classic “gotta get mine Westbrook” they will see their team self-destruct like they did last year against Dallas in the Western Conference Finals.

"Its pathetic!" Stephen A. Smith exclaimed on ESPN's Sports Center this morning when referring to Westbrook's performance last night. Smith went on to claim that Magic Johnson, one of the NBA's greatest point guards, thought Westbrook's performance as a POINT GUARD was the worst he has ever seen in the NBA Finals.

So Russell, we know you can play; there is no doubt about that. However, you must do your job as a point guard and in case you forgot what that job entails I brought you some directions:

pass first.

shoot second.

There you go. If you do otherwise young fella your downfall will not be your opponents, not your teammates, it will be the one and only you. Do your job.

"Teams win, individuals don't, we've got to do it together" Kevin Durant

SOURCES:

ESPN's Sports Center 8:30 am PCT