Russell Westbrook is one of the NBA’s best players, the reigning league MVP and is quite used to comparisons at this point. But I’m not sure if anyone has compared him to terrifying boxer Mike Tyson until now.
Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd compared Westbrook and Tyson on Tuesday night, and it was actually a compliment. In fact, Kidd has some very complimentary things to say about Westbrook after the Thunder played the Bucks in a game that saw some great moments from Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo in what was otherwise a blowout.
One reason for that blowout, according to Kidd, is that Westbrook simply never stops hustling on the floor. He was an assist short of another triple-double on the season on Tuesday night, with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists in a 110-91 road win in Milwaukee.
But it was his relentless, not his numbers, that impressed Kidd.
“”He’s the best in the game,” Kidd said according to ESPN. The two exchanged a greeting before the game, and afterward Kidd compared his style of play to that of Tyson, the boxing legend.
“He is the [Mike] Tyson of basketball,” Kidd, a former star point guard himself, said before the Bucks lost 110-91 to Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder. “When the jump ball [goes up], he is coming as Tyson did [in getting] off the stool. When the bell rings, he’s coming for you. Whenever he’s on the floor, he plays at one speed, and that’s fast and hard. He’s a little different in that case that he’s probably the only [No.] 1, and then I would put [at] 1B in that same category John Wall. Just that speed of coming at you every time you’re on the floor. There is no kind of walking the ball up; they are coming at you and causing problems.”
Kidd said the new-look Thunder trio of Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony remind him of the “older Heat teams,” which won two titles with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. That’s certainly good news for anyone in Oklahoma City who wants to see this Thunder team become a cohesive powerhouse in the West. On Tuesday night, at least, the product was pretty convincing.
