Russell Westbrook is officially done playing in the NBA, and in Utah, his name will always carry a strange little footnote.
He never appeared in a game for the Jazz, but the team still landed him twice in the past decade - first from the Lakers in 2023, then from the Clippers in 2024. That alone makes him one of the more unusual entries in Jazz history. The bigger reason he matters, though, is that the first of those trades helped set up the move that brought Jaren Jackson Jr. to Utah.
Westbrook was never brought in for what he could do on the court in Salt Lake City. At the time, he was still a good player, but the Jazz had no real use for him. The point was to get value from Mike Conley Jr., Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley.
What Utah got back included a top-four protected pick from the Lakers. Before the Luka Doncic trade, that pick carried real weight, and even after that, it still had enough value for Memphis to want it in the blockbuster package for JJJ.
There’s no way to know exactly how things would have played out, and Utah might have made the deal even without that Lakers pick in hand. But the reality is simple: the first Westbrook trade was one of the steps that brought the Jazz to where they are now.
And where they are now looks a lot different because of Jackson.
The Jazz have plenty to like about their roster, and Jackson is a huge part of that. He’s a multi-time All-Star, a former Defensive Player of the Year, and one of the rare big men in the league who can protect the rim and stretch the floor at an elite level. He can also create his own shot, even if Utah may not lean on that part of his game as much as Memphis did.
Jazz fans have every reason to be excited about what Jackson can mean for a team that hopes - and expects - to be a playoff contender next season. He brings both the talent and the experience to alter the trajectory of the franchise.
That Lakers pick Utah received in the Westbrook deal helped make the Jackson acquisition possible three years later in February. Moments like that are why trades can take on a life of their own in the eyes of a fanbase.
Westbrook may never have worn a Jazz jersey in a game, but Utah has a real reason to be thankful he was part of the story. If Jackson ends up delivering a title, Westbrook’s place in Jazz history will be about a lot more than irony.
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Russell Westbrooks place in the game has been secure for years, and now that his NBA career is over, the conversation around him has shifted from nightly production to legacy. He leaves as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, an MVP and a multiple-time All-Star, the kind of rsum that puts him comfortably among the eras defining stars.
For Jazz fans, though, the debate around Westbrook has a familiar sting. He has long been mentioned in the same breath as Karl Malone and John Stockton in those painful discussions about all-time greatness without a championship, a reminder of how unforgiving the NBA can be. Westbrook did reach the Finals with Oklahoma City in 2012, but the rest of his career never brought another shot at the title, leaving one of the biggest what-ifs intact. [Read more 🡒]