Russell Westbrook is ruthless.
During a game against Boston at TD Garden on Tuesday night, Celtics center Aron Baynes was on the ground, tying his shoe in the paint. Noticing an opportunity, Westbrook blew past defender Jayson Tatum and sprinted toward the basket.
At that point, Baynes abandoned his laces and scrambled to stand up and meet Westbrook at the rim.
Lucky for Baynes, he avoided getting turned into a poster and was able to contest Westbrook's shot as he lost control of the ball. Regardless, the moment was an illustration of Westbrook's ongoing determination to find any kind of advantage for the Thunder as playoffs approach. The Celtics end up wining the game 100-99.Â
The play also called to mind a story of Westbrook's obsession with tightly tied shoes while doing charity work with school children last year. A New York Times article published in early 2017 used the anectode to illustrate Westbrook's unique focus:
From that point on in his Book Bus session, Westbrookâs focus was locked onto the childrenâs shoelaces, a strangely high percentage of which seemed to be loose. âYour shoe is loose,â Westbrook would say as a child walked onto the bus. âTie your shoe up.â He was cheerful but firm; he seemed genuinely concerned. Dozens of kids passed through the bus, and Westbrook scrutinized each of their shoes, and not a single loose lace was allowed to pass without comment. Over and over, he told the kids to tie their shoes. Even when the laces were not all the way untied, just trending in that direction, Westbrook pointed it out: âTie your shoes up.â It was as if he had identified a public safety epidemic that he was single-handedly going to fix, one child at a time.
Take that as a lesson for today: Keep your shoes tied or you might tripâor get dunked on by an All-Star point guard.
