Russell Westbrook reflects on historic season, praises teammates

Two hundred ninety-five days after Kevin Durant's departure, Russell Westbrook's historic, rollercoaster ride of a season has come to a close.

And what a ride it's been.

After the Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, losing their first-round playoff series 4-1, the MVP frontrunner took some time to reflect on the past year.

Westbrook was visibly upset at the postgame dais, but didn't let a disappointing finish keep him from echoing the sentiments he's expressed throughout the season. Westbrook praised his teammates — who oftentimes received the brunt of the criticism for not giving Westbrook enough to work with on a nightly basis (as was evidenced most recently in the series with Houston) — for coming together and fighting through adversity.

"I consider it a good season. From myself to every guy in that locker room did an amazing job all year long — Taj (Gibson) and Doug (McDermott), those guys coming in midway through the season and helping as well — you can be nothing but proud of them," Westbrook said. "I'm just happy to have an opportunity to be able to play with all these guys. They do an amazing job of making the game easy for me, do an amazing job of coming in every day and competing at a high level.

"People counted us out at the start of the season. The guys deserve credit for coming in and making sure we were ready. The coaching staff, down the line, just everybody, our fans, for sticking with us."

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Looking back at the past 10 months, the team-first point guard — who grew tremendously both as a player and a leader during that span — hammered one point home: He's proud.

"Obviously, our team changed. We lost guys, gained guys, guys got contracts, some guys didn't. We came together. It brought us closer. That was the most important part, I think for us. That was our struggle early on. I think as the season went on, we stuck together through everything. I'm most proud of that."

Looking toward the future at his exit interview on Wednesday afternoon, Westbrook said he hasn't "even thought about" signing a contract extension this summer, but "Obviously, everybody knows that I like Oklahoma City and I love being here and I love everybody here. ... I'm worried about making sure my wife (who is due to give birth in May) is alright and moving forward with that. Everything else really doesn't matter at this point."

Adding that — in addition to entering fatherhood — he plans to take plenty of time off for rest over the next few months, Westbrook said he has a lot of work to do before October.

"There are different things I can improve on, just off the top of my head, finding different ways to make my teammates better," Westbrook said. "I think there's games where I can look at the film and see how I can get my teammates better. Making sure my leadership is always at top tier. I think the Jordans, the Kobes, those guys, their leadership was always at the top regardless of how they were playing, regardless of what time the game was, making sure they had their team ready to play. That's my biggest challenge is making sure, regardless of what's going on, making sure our guys are ready to play every single night."

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