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- Russell Westbrook dropped 46 points on the Wizards last night after mistakenly believing he was the last pick in the NBA All-Star draft.
- The list had been published in alphabetical order which listed Westbrook’s name last.
- After the game, reporters informed Westbrook that the list was alphabetical, to which he gave a hilarious response.
Russell Westbrook felt disrespected on Thursday night.
After the NBA All-Star rosters were announced with team captains Stephen Curry and LeBron James “drafting” their teammates in something akin to a playground pick-up game.
The graphic presenting Team LeBron and Team Stephen showed Westbrook as the last player listed on Team LeBron. Westbrook mistakenly thought that this meant he was the last player drafted to the team.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/956679626209689600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As drafted by #NBAAllStar team captains #LeBronJames and #StephenCurry….
The 2018 @NBAAllStar Rosters! pic.twitter.com/TbZtvitP4f
In actuality, the graphic simply listed the names of each roster in alphabetical order, but no one informed Westbrook of that before the Thunder took the court on Thursday night to play the Wizards.
Making matters worse, Wizards guard John Wall was listed just above Westbrook’s name, making him believe that the player he’d be going head-to-head with that night was selected before him by Curry and LeBron.
Feeling spited, he would have himself quite a game.
Westbrook has shown an ability to play with a fire, especially when he feels he’s been dismissed, undervalued, or overlooked, and Thursday night was a prime example of what he can do with that sort of fuel. He dropped 46 points on the Wizards on 19-of-29 shooting including 21 points in the fourth quarter and several thunderous dunks.
The Thunder cruised to a 121-112 win.
After the game, Westbrook was asked how he felt about being drafted to Team LeBron. “That’s cool, man, that’s good, man, they finally got the teams figured out,” he said. It was at that moment that teammate Carmelo Anthony yelled out to Westbrook, “Tell ’em how you really feel!”
“But I see I was the last pick on the list,” Westbrook said with a smile. “I was just trying to figure out how …”
A few reporters informed Westbrook that the list was in alphabetical order, at which point he yelled out to his teammates “See, I told you, man! Alphabetical order, man! Of course I was first!”
You can watch the scene play out below.
Unfortunately Westbrook was not first either. While the full draft order was not revealed, it was announced during TNT’s coverage of the game that Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo were the first players selected.
Maybe next year the NBA will decide to televise the draft so Westbrook (and the Wizards) won’t have to deal with this sort of confusion.
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