For all of you Russell Westbrook fans worried about the young Oklahoma City Thunder star point guard, he has a message for you.
In a video he posted on Vine earlier this week, Westbrook is going out to the pool in his backyard while hobbling on one crutch. The video then flashes (as Vine videos do) to him trying to comically break the crutch over his knee and then deciding to just throw it into the water. The video ends with Westbrook preparing to shoot a basketball into the pool and uttering his message to fans—“I’m baaack!”
Westbrook was hurt in the first round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs against the Houston Rockets on April 24, according to ESPN.com. Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley was going for a steal and hit Westbrook’s knee as Westbrook was about to call a timeout. Westbrook was forced to miss the remainder of the playoffs and had surgery on April 27 for a lateral meniscus tear.
There was some early speculation after the game as to whether or not the Beverley play was dirty. According to ESPN.com’s “5-on-5,” reporter J.A. Adande said the incident was a regular basketball play:
No. A player has the right to go for the ball until the whistle blows … and sometimes even afterward if he's already in motion. We've seen players fake the timeout and go to the hoop, and we don't call that dirty. There's a difference between sneaky and dirty. Beverley didn't cross that line.
NBA Analyst and former Houston Rockets guard Kenny Smith disagreed calling the play “bush league,” according to an NBA blog.
Beverley even received death threats from a Thunder ball boy.
The Thunder made it past the Rockets in six games but then lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round of the playoffs.
According to ESPN.com, OKC said in May they would not set a schedule for Westbrook’s return to NBA action until he was off his crutches.
