National Basketball Association

Scott Brooks dubs Russell Westbrook the second-best PG ever – fair or foul?

Updated May. 4, 2021 5:15 p.m. ET

First, Russell Westbrook lit up the stat sheet. Then, his coach lit up the postgame media conference.

"I used to always say he's probably gonna go down as the third-best point guard ever, but I think he's passed one and he's gonna probably go down as the second-best," he said Monday.

Scott Brooks is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Washington Wizards, and Westbrook is enjoying his first with the franchise, but their player-coach relationship extends to Westbrook's Oklahoma City days, when Brooks served as the star's head coach for seven seasons.

Still, despite having spent nearly a decade watching Westbrook play the game from the best seat in the house, Brooks remains amazed by his point guard, and such was the case Monday night.

Westbrook went off in a 154-141 win for the Wizards over the Indiana Pacers, outrebounding and out-assisting his scoring total.

Westbrook's ridiculous performance led Brooks to the postgame podium armed with a pretty intense take regarding Westbrook's standing in the pantheon of all-time great point guards.

"He's amazing," Brooks said. "... I've been fortunate enough to see him for eight years do a lot of things that are pretty much superhuman at times. Point guards don't do what he does. They're not built that way. There might be some that probably shoot better, there might be some that can probably do certain things better, but there's nobody in the history of the game that can do what he does throughout the stat sheet."

Brooks admitted that Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard ever, but he said Westbrook is his new No. 2, presumably passing Oscar Robertson, whose record of 181 triple-doubles is in jeopardy after Westbrook hit 178 with Monday night's performance.

"He's doing MVP-type things every game," Brooks said.

Does Westbrook really have a claim to the title of second-best point guard in the history of the game?

His résumé is second to ... none.

Westbrook won the NBA MVP in 2017 and is a nine-time NBA All-Star, winning the game's MVP award in 2015 and '16. He's a two-time member of the All-NBA First Team (2016 and 2017), he won the league's scoring title in 2015 and '17 and the assists title in 2018 and '19.

From 2016 to '19, Westbrook averaged a triple-double in three consecutive seasons. The only other player in league history to average a triple-double was Robertson, who did it once, in 1962.

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The only thing missing from Westbrook's docket – and it's a big thing – is a championship, and it's for that reason that on Tuesday, Shannon Sharpe stopped short of calling "The Brodie" the second-best PG ever, instead going with one of his contemporaries in the No. 2 slot.

"How the hell did he just jump Steph Curry?" Sharpe said. "Magic is the oracle ... He's by himself. I know Scotty Brooks is in the East, and he's doing everything he possibly can along with Russ and Bradley Beal to get this team into the play-in, but he's not seeing what Steph Curry's doing on the other side? Has he not seen what Steph has done?

"To say he's the second-best in front of Steph Curry? Absolutely not. No way, no how."

Curry's résumé reads as such: two-time NBA MVP (2015 and '16), seven-time NBA All-Star, three-time All-NBA First Team (2015, '16 and '19), NBA scoring champion (2016), NBA steals leader (2016) and three-time NBA champion (2015, '17 and '18).

This season, Curry has been remarkable. He's averaging 31.4 points, 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds. He has scored 40 or more a league-leading nine times this season, and he has made at least 10 3s in a game six times.

He has made at least five 3s in 35 of the 57 games he has played this season.

Whether Curry is the second-best PG ever is a separate debate, but Sharpe and Skip Bayless agreed that Westbrook hasn't made his way to No. 2 just yet.

Bayless did give Westbrook credit for his ability to put up "impossibly great" numbers, but he listed a number of PGs he would pick to lead his team before Russ, including Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas and Steve Nash.

"I will give Russell this: On any given night, his ceiling in numbers that he can generate – raw, playing-his-tail-off numbers as a point guard – is completely off the charts," Bayless said. "You can make the case they're beyond anything Magic could have produced.

"But if I want one game for my life, do I want Russ as my point guard? No! He might not make my top 20."

Skip Bayless: Russell Westbrook is not behind Magic Johnson among all-time point guards I UNDISPUTED

After last night's 154-141 victory over the Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks called Russell Westbrook the second-best point guard in NBA history behind Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson. Westbrook scored 14 points, but also racked up 21 rebounds and 24 assists. Skip Bayless explains why Westbrook's 'raw numbers' aren't enough to rank him the second greatest point guard of all time.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith also took a moment to laud Westbrook's incredible ability to do everything on the floor at the highest level, but he took Brooks to task for his comments.

"The blasphemy that just came out of your mouth. We got Isiah Thomas, we even have Steph Curry right now. Damian Lillard, others – and you're gonna say second-greatest of all time? ... Scott Brooks, so why the hell didn't you win with him? You had [Kevin Durant]. ... You only got to the Finals once."

Westbrook's career isn't over, and neither are Curry's, Paul's or those of a few others, which means there is still time to ascend to No. 2 or even catch Magic.

For now, consensus is that Westbrook and the rest are all second to one.

Let the race for runner-up continue.

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