Russell Westbrook Retires After 18 NBA Seasons, Leaves Record 209 Triple-Doubles

Russell Westbrook announced his retirement from the NBA on Wednesday, ending an 18-season career that made him the league's career leader in triple-doubles. The 37-year-old shared the news in a three-and-a-half-minute video on social media narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan, in which Westbrook himself never speaks, according to Al Jazeera and the Japan Times.

"Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end," Westbrook wrote in the post. "You had to be there. And now it's over."

ESPN reported that Westbrook had offers from the Sacramento Kings and the Washington Wizards this offseason but chose to walk away on his own terms, according to sources who spoke with ESPN's Shams Charania. His agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, released a separate statement Wednesday criticizing the league's labor rules for making it harder for veteran players to land contracts. "Incredible, the Lakers sell for $12 billion, yet teams won't spend on older vets because of current CBA rules," Schwartz said, according to ESPN.

An MVP season for the record books

Seattle drafted Westbrook fourth overall in 2008, but the team relocated to Oklahoma City before he played a game there, according to Al Jazeera. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Thunder, teaming with Kevin Durant and James Harden to reach the 2012 NBA Finals, where Oklahoma City lost to the Miami Heat, CBS Sports reported.

Westbrook won the MVP award in 2016-17 after averaging 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists, becoming the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1961-62 to average a triple-double over a full season, according to Al Jazeera. He set the single-season triple-double record that year with 42. Guardian Sport reported he went on to average a triple-double for a full season four times total, more than anyone else in league history.

A nine-time All-Star, Westbrook finished with 209 career triple-doubles, well ahead of Nikola Jokic's 198 and Robertson's 181, according to Guardian Sport. He ranks fifth all-time in assists with 10,351 and 14th in scoring with 27,176 points, per CBS Sports. He also won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA at the 2012 London Games and was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.

The final stretch

After Oklahoma City traded him to the Houston Rockets in 2019, Westbrook played for six more teams over his final seven seasons, including Washington, the Lakers, the Clippers, Denver and Sacramento. In his last season with the Kings, he averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds over 64 games, according to ESPN.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti praised Westbrook in a statement carried by Al Jazeera. "He built a Hall of Fame career not by making statements or simply by breaking records, he did it by showing us all the power of asking one simple question: Why Not?" Presti said.

Westbrook played two seasons at UCLA before entering the NBA, where he was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore, according to Al Jazeera.