Magic Johnson sends powerful message on Russell Westbrook’s retirement

Former MVP Russell Westbrook announced his retirement from basketball after 18 seasons, and a legendary Lakers point guard is showing him love. Magic Johnson took to his X account to pay tribute to Westbrook.

“I want to congratulate Russell Westbrook on his retirement from the NBA after an extraordinary hall of fame basketball career,” Johnson said. “Russell’s the most athletic point guard that the NBA has ever seen and his dominance led him to become the NBA’s all-time leader in regular season triple-doubles”

He added in another post, The two things I admire most about Russell – he never cheated the game, and his passion for giving back to Los Angeles through his numerous philanthropic endeavors. May God continue to bless him and his family!”

Westbrook capped his NBA career with a strong final season for the Sacramento Kings, appearing in 64 games and averaging 15.2 points, 6.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He started 58 of those games as the Kings finished 22-60, landing 14th in the Western Conference.

His career began back in the 2008 NBA Draft, when the Seattle SuperSonics took him fourth overall. Westbrook went on to spend 11 seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, becoming one of the franchise’s defining figures, much of that stretch alongside Kevin Durant. Together with James Harden, the trio pushed the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals, where they fell to LeBron James’ Miami Heat in five games.