Russell Westbrook Praises Thunder After 2025 Title Run
russell westbrook was happy for the Oklahoma City Thunder after they won their first-ever title in 2025. He said the fans deserved it. The championship came six years after his Thunder era ended in 2019.
Westbrook On Oklahoma City
“I was extremely, extremely happy for them, for the fans, they deserve it because they are truly the best fans in sports,” Westbrook said. The reaction tied his old franchise to the title run in a direct way, even as the trophy arrived long after he left.
Westbrook entered Oklahoma City as the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft. He formed a core with Kevin Durant and James Harden, and that group pushed the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals with a 23-year-old Durant, a 23-year-old Westbrook and a 22-year-old Harden.
From Finals Run To Rebuild
The Thunder lost that Finals series to the Miami Heat, then traded Harden after the 2012 postseason. Injuries and departures kept breaking up the roster from there: Westbrook suffered a meniscus tear in the first round of the 2013 playoffs, Serge Ibaka went down with a calf strain in the second round of the 2014 playoffs, and Durant missed most of the 2014-15 season with a foot injury.
Oklahoma City still pushed the 73-9 Golden State Warriors to three games to one in the 2016 Western Conference Finals before losing the series. Durant left for the Golden State Warriors that offseason, and Westbrook averaged a triple-double for multiple seasons after he was gone.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Era
The Thunder did not get past the first round with Westbrook after Durant’s departure. Paul George joined him a year later, but the franchise moved into a rebuild after 2019 and traded Westbrook, George and Jerami Grant.
Those moves brought back a record-setting 15 first-round draft picks, which the Thunder used to build the next core. They acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in one of those trades and drafted Jalen Williams, Aaron Wiggins and Nikola Topic with the picks, then added Jared McCain during this year’s trade deadline using the last of that capital.
The turnaround ended with the Thunder’s first title in 2025 and Gilgeous-Alexander becoming the franchise’s third-ever MVP. For Westbrook, the title closed the loop on a team he helped build, lost, and then watched finish the job without him.
