Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas has often some strong opinions about how he sees players and the league. He appreciates greatness when he sees it, and criticizes bad play. He is even vocal about players’ off-court issues. But yesterday he talked about the media appreciating Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic while criticizing Russell Westbrook.
Arenas was talking on his podcast Gil’s Arena about how the media has a different view of players today. Arenas talked about how the media criticized Russell Westbrook for stat-padding while lauding Jokic and Doncic. He said:
Russell Westbrook has a triple-double season. That’s considered stat padding. Jokic and Luka has almost a triple-double season….and that’s ‘whooooo…..we should round up for them’. The f**k we rounding up for when the person who got one…….uh that doesn’t count.
Gilbert Arenas said
He alluded that the media had chosen to disregard Westbrook’s triple-double seasons. Now they have jumped on the bandwagon to praise Jokic and Doncic on their way to tripe-double seasons.
Gilbert Arenas believes that since Westbrook had achieved a triple-double season for the first time since the great Wilt Chamberlain did, he should have been given enormous credit. But now, since Jokic and Doncic are about to do it since Westbrook, the narrative has changed.
All in all, as per Arenas, the media plays around with the narrative as per their interest. Guest Rashad McCants added that since Russell Westbrook is still playing, it could be the reason the media is not considering his contributions. He believes since Westbrook is not playing at the same level now, they are disregarding him from the narrative.
Russell Westbrook and a legacy built off triple-double seasons
Russell Westbrook was part of the Oklahoma City Thunder team that had Kevin Durant as the leader and an up-and-coming James Harden. Westbrook was always the second-best scorer on that team. After Durant and Harden left, the offensive load was completely on Westbrook’s shoulders.
Arenas believes the media are lauding the play of Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic for almost having a triple-double season (image via Open Source/X)Westbrook responded with three consecutive years of triple-double productions. The first one netted him the league MVP award. Westbrook’s heroics with the Thunder made him one of only two players in NBA history to record a triple-double season. His 3 seasons before departing the Thunder, made him one of the most elite players ever to play the game.
What Gilbert Arenas was talking about is that the media never gave Westbrook his flowers for those three seasons. They are now jumping on the Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic bandwagon as they are close to posting a triple-double season.
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