Russell Westbrook was long thought to be one of those guys who would stay with the same team through his entire career. Long after the departure of Kevin Durant, Russ stayed in OKC and established it as his own franchise.
But since leaving the Thunder in 2019, he has bounced between two different organizations. And while the jury is still out on what to call his tenure in D.C., his one-year stint in Houston was arguably the worst stretch of his career.
Playing alongside his former teammate, James Harden, Westbrook sacrificed a lot of his own game to appease his new running mate, and it didn't result in a lot of success on the court.
But perhaps the biggest reason for his decision to bolt after just one year? His treatment by the franchise.
Here's what Kendric Perkins said on The Jump about Russ' problem with the Rockets.
“From a source of mine that happened to be on the [Houston] coaching staff, they said that Russell Westbrook felt like he wasn’t being treated like the star that he should have been treated like. So, he wanted out,” Perkins said.
At the time, people chalked up Westbrook's departure to his complicated partnership with James Harden, but it seems his displeasure was more rooted in the franchise as a whole.
During that time, Harden had the Rockets completely under his control, leaving no room for the team to treat Russ as a typical star usually does.
Instead, he was viewed as more of a role-player than anything else, and it was something Westbrook might have thought was disrespectful.
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