Russell Westbrook has called time on his NBA career.
The 37-year-old announced his retirement on Wednesday with a self-made tribute video that celebrated the accomplishments he piled up across 18 NBA seasons from 2008-26. In the caption attached to the video, Westbrook made the news official and offered a short, reflective line on the moment.
"Sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve already watched the end," Westbrook wrote. "You had to be there. And now it’s over."
Westbrook spent his first 11 seasons with the Thunder, and that stretch defined his run at the top of the league. He was one of the central figures of the NBA’s 2010s, sharing the spotlight with Kevin Durant as Oklahoma City’s first true title contender for most of the decade. During his time there, he won the 2016-17 MVP, reached one NBA Finals, and made four trips to the Western Conference Finals.
His resume is loaded from top to bottom: one MVP, nine All-Star selections, nine All-NBA honors, two scoring titles and three assist titles. He also changed the way people talked about triple-doubles, putting together four seasons with one in a five-year span after Oscar Robertson had been the only player to average one over a full season for roughly 60 years.
Westbrook’s place in Thunder history is already secure. He owns most of the franchise’s all-time records, and even with the final third of his career spent bouncing around the league, he is on track for the Hall of Fame and for his No. 0 to be retired in Oklahoma City.
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