NBA

Clippers’ Russell Westbrook keeps making NBA history as he now passes Isiah Thomas as the 9th player with most-career assists

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By
Antonio Kozlow
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Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.

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Sports Editor

Updated13 Mar 2023

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Going up the historic stat ladders is no news for Russell Westbrook, as the Clippers star has been NBA royalty for a while now, breaking records season after season. This past Saturday, he jumped over Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas for the ninth-most assists in the league’s all-time books.

As Los Angeles faced the Knicks this weekend, the veteran star handed the ball to Paul George who turned in an easy layup during the third quarter of the match. That meant his third assist of the contest, but even better, it was the 9,060th of his entire 15-campaign career as an NBA player.

Take a look at this Saturday’s play as the LA squad went on to defeat New York 106-95:

This is actually a huge deal, considering that in the top 10 all-time assist race, most records a very much apart from each other. For example, Russell is now 800 assists behind No.8 Oscar Robertson. Nevertheless, in perspective he is only 1,300 away from icon Steve Nash, who is in fifth place with 10,335 assists.

So yes, we could say it is very likely that the Clippers athlete will overcome Nash’s record at some point, considering he is still only 34-years-old and should be able to compete at a high level for at least 3 more years. However, we can’t say the same about the 4th and 3rd places, since LeBron James and Chris Paul are still active players and can improve their marks.

If you come to think about it, the stars final placement on this board will depend on what type of roles he will assume later in his career, as he’s already changed plenty in the last couple of years. For example, Westbrook had become the best sixth man with the Lakers, and not necessarily a starter.

Now that he’s in the Clippers roster, he’s restored his role in the starting lineup. However, how well the LA team plays this season will define his future in the squad, considering he’s been known to constantly change franchises looking for a stronger side to have actual title-contention aspirations, a trophy he’s yet to conquer.

His former coach Darvin Ham seemingly took a shot at him

As the Lakers are finally playing the basketball we’ve grown accustomed to over the years, they are at a point this season that they must make it or break it as the league enters its final stages of regular season.

Having traded off Russell Westbrook was part of those hard choices that had to be done in order to improve the team spirit and acquire the correct pieces around Anthony Davis, who’s had to lead the Los Angeles side ever since LeBron James was sidelined due to an injured foot.

As it is notable that the team is playing better, coach Darvin Ham may have taken a shot at his former player, simply by pointing out the fact that they’ve improved after their roster changes before last trade deadline.

“We said it at the outset of the season,” Ham began. “We want to be competitive together and accountable. Now that we made the acquisitions that we’ve made. Everybody is having fun in the locker room, competing their behinds off, pulling in the same direction. They really enjoy playing with each other and I think it really comes through in our play.”