Having been tossed around the league, representing five teams in the past five years, fans seem to be forgetting just how good Russell Westbrook was in his prime. Roy Hibbert took to YouTube to remind basketball enthusiasts of Westbrook’s on-court prowess during the 2015-2020 period. Hibbert would shed light on the same by humiliating himself, admitting to having nightmares before games against Brodie.
The center dissects the game of the players in the current era on his YouTube channel. However, the former Indiana Pacers star decided to give his audience a bit of a throwback, talking about a deadly Westbrook.
He began his video by introducing the 2017 MVP as the only guard to give him nightmares before their matchups. Hibbert also lauded Brodie for his athleticism before breaking down a few plays from their contests.
“Russell Westbrook is the only guard that I legit had nightmare about the night before games. I literally wake up in cold sweats cause I knew I couldn’t guard him at all.
Russ is a freak athlete who can shift into multiple gears. If you made any sort of mistake, he was gonna make you pay,” Hibbert said.
Roy Hibbert:
“Russell Westbrook is the only guard I feared…”
The future Hall of Famer showed no mercy 👀
🎥: @Roy_Meets_World pic.twitter.com/jM5UdpS9IT
— Beastbrook (@Beastbr00k0) July 28, 2024
Being 7ft 2, Hibbert admitting to being afraid of Westbrook says a lot about the latter’s fearlessness. It is not surprising that Russ averaged more points, assists, and steals than Hibbert across the 19 times they went up against each other. However, also averaging more rebounds than the center does highlight his dominance.
Similar to the two-time All-Star, there are multiple players in the league who share the same thought.
Westbrook intimidated a rookie Donovan Mitchell
Even when Westbrook had an off night, he managed to intimidate his opponent. Such was the case with Donovan Mitchell during his rookie season.
Merely three games into his rookie season, Mitchell would witness a dip in his morale after facing Russell Westbrook and co. Westbrook had a forgettable performance, recording 6 points, 18.1% FG, and 7 turnovers. However, he was successful in “instilling fear” in D-Mitch, who would finish the night with 2 points on 1-7 shooting from the field.
“I was like oh what do I do? I emulated his moves non-stop and now he’s staring at you, trying to instill fear into you and it was like okay you’ve got to get over this,” Mitchell told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Now representing the Denver Nuggets, Mike Malone and Co. will hope for Westbrook to be as terrifying to the opponents as he once was. It’ll be interesting to see how his infectious energy will affect his new team.
