Surprise Team Emerges as Fit For UCLA Legend

The Sacramento Kings have emerged as a potential suitor for UCLA legend Russell Westbrook ahead of free agency.

Sam Amick of The Athletic reported on their interest in the former MVP in a piece about Sacramento's offseason.

"The Kings are now pivoting to free-agency options that would be far more friendly for the payroll," he wrote As NBA reporter Marc Stein reported on Tuesday, league and team sources say the Kings indeed have serious interest in veteran Dennis Schröder. That is, of course, if he doesn’t get something done with the Detroit Pistons first (league sources say he’s been in talks on that front this week). Fellow free agents Tyus Jones and Russell Westbrook are also known to be options that the Kings are considering."

Westbrook is declined his $3.4 million player option to return to Denver in the 2025-26 season, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

This means the 36-year-old former MVP will be a free agent starting June 30.

The 17-year veteran was an integral part of Denver's second unit over the course of the season. Westbrook was often the source of an otherwise absent energy off the bench and in the non-Nikola Jokic minutes.

Westbrook, a nine-time All-Star, two-time scoring champ, 2017 MVP and all-time triple-doubles leader, has played for the Thunder, Rockets, Wizards, Lakers and Clippers along with Denver.

Should he sign with a new team this offseason, he will have been on seven different teams over the last eight seasons of his career.

Westbrook spent two season with UCLA, playing in 75 games and averaging 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game over his Bruins career.

In the 2007-08 season, he started 34 games and earned Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the All-Pac-10 Conference's third team.

The Bruins advanced to the Finals Four in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, inevitably losing to Memphis. Westbrook helped UCLA win the Pac-10 tournament and regular season titles while averaging 12.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.

Westbrook was drafted fourth overall by the Seattle Supersonics in the 2008 NBA Draft less than a week before the franchise moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder.

He is arguably the franchise's most iconic player in history and will undoubtedly be a first-ballot hall of famer.