Russell Westbrook, one of the NBA’s biggest style icons and a catalyst for transforming the pregame tunnel into a fixture of the modern NBA, has retired.
Why not? That’s the mantra that Russell Westbrook lived by in all aspects of his NBA career. When you saw him lift off for what seems like an improbable dunk or drive to the paint through a sea of defenders, why not? When he walked the pregame tunnel in a cream poncho with brown stripes and a pork pie hat that looks like he stole it from Walter White’s closet, why not?
“It’s how I live my life. It’s how I operate. Whenever there’s any type of indecision, I have an easy answer, and it’s just strictly, ‘Why not?’” Westbrook told Complex in a 2023 interview. “If I’m getting dressed, or designing, or trying to create pieces, and I don’t love it right away, I’ll just be like, ‘Fuck it. Why not? Let’s just do it.’”
Shop Honor The Gift now on Complex.
When Westbrook’s career started back in 2008, the late David Stern’s strict NBA dress code was still in place. Players were required to wear suits to games, a decree largely believed to be brought about to curb another fashion icon, Allen Iverson, from wearing 4XL throwback jerseys and baggy sweatsuits. For the first four years, Westbrook stuck to the dress code. His biggest “risk” was a cardigan with gray stripes. But by 2012, he was finding his lane. He wasn’t quiet in his “distressed band T-shirt and construction vests” era yet, but he was experimenting more. During the 2012 NBA Finals between the OKC Thunder and Miami Heat, he rocked a white Lacoste polo covered in colorful fishing lures and lensless red glasses. A year later, at All-Star Weekend, he spruced up a brown blazer and a gray/black striped tie with duck camo pants and a yellow belt to go with his “Tokyo” Air Jordan 5s. It barely matched, but it followed the dress code guidelines and stood out, especially since the rest of the league was still rocking more GQ-friendly fits of tailored suits and slim-fitting sweaters over button-ups.
We admired Westbrook’s daring approach and put him on the cover of our April/May 2013 Style & Design issue in black leather shorts and a mesh tank top (remember the “all leather everything” trend?). It was rare to see an athlete on the cover of a “Style & Design” issue, but Westbrook was one of the guys helping redefine the relationship between sports and fashion.
“What was interesting at the time is not only was he coming into his own as an athlete, he was coming into his own as Russell Westbrook, the fashion persona,” says then Complex associate editor Jian DeLeon, who penned the cover story. “The intersection of hip-hop and basketball was starting to dominate the fashion zeitgeist. The idea that you could be a ‘fashion guy’ was a very nascent idea. Russ was helping push that into the mainstream.”
Not everyone saw the vision right away, though. Russ, the Thunder point guard dressed like Steve Urkel in an untucked white button-up, thin plaid tie, and thick-rimmed black glasses, a style icon? The internet called his outfits “absurd” and “dizzying.” Charles Barkley joked on TNT’s Inside the NBA that Westbrook looked like he shopped at TJ Maxx. But how quickly things change.
In 2017, Sports Illustrated called Westbrook the “Most Fashionable Athlete” that year. He was also named the best-dressed player by the NBPA as part of the Players Voice awards from 2016 to 2019. He’s been one of the celebrities invited to the ultra exclusive Met Gala on multiple occasions and sat front row at fashion shows in Paris. Perhaps Westbrook’s most lasting contribution is a clothing brand of his own, Honor the Gift, which he launched in 2017 and still produces seasonal cut and sew lines to this day.
“Russell was the first post-dress-code NBA style superstar,” says DeLeon. “For better or worse, I think he’s inspired a new generation of NBA players to let their freak flags fly in the fashion world. That’s always going to be part of his legacy, the guy who helped elevate fashion in the NBA.”
His lasting influence is evident. Nowadays, on any given night, in any city, the NBA pregame tunnel is rife with unforgettable looks à la Westbrook. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has arrived at Paycom Arena rocking everything from rare Chrome Hearts to his own Canada Goose outerwear collabs. His teammates like Jalen Williams and Jared McCain have followed suit. In 2021, Kyle Kuzma went viral for a pink Raf Simons knit sweater that was so comically baggy it looked like it was photoshopped. In the modern NBA, players can become household names for getting fits off in the tunnel just as easily as they can for dropping 50 in a game. We don’t get to this point without Westbrook and his experimental approach.
Westbrook could put together a memorable outfit with his eyes closed. Plenty of them merit conversation and, as far as he’s concerned, there’s no regrets. “I stand by whatever it was I put on that day,” he says.
Following the news of Westbrook’s retirement, we look back at some of the looks that represent his journey onto the NBA’s Mount Rushmore of style. If you still don’t quite get it, just remember: Why not?
Neat Like a Geek, June 12, 2012
Despite his best efforts, most notably a 43-point performance in Game 4 of the 2012 NBA Finals, Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder got bested by the Miami Heat and didn’t end the season hoisting up the Larry O’Brien trophy. But Westbrook certainly still got those Ws with his fits. The most memorable was on full display during the Game 1 postgame press conference: a white Prada button-up covered in colorful print composed of people dancing and playing instruments paired with a lensless pair of fire-engine-red glasses. Believe it or not, you can have fun with a dress code. Westbrook’s Clark Kent cosplay still abided by the rules in place at the time.
Sports blogs like SB Nation called him “the MVP of wearing ridiculous things during the playoffs.” (People hate what they don’t understand.) The New York Times wrote a trend piece on the “geek-chic” style present in the tunnels during the 2012 NBA Finals, highlighted by Westbrook’s eye-catching glasses. Today, there’s plenty of peacocking going on in tunnels around the league. But don’t get it twisted: Westbrook’s been doing this.
Point Guard in Paris, June 27, 2014
We wouldn’t recommend rocking a leather tank top with matching pants. For one, it’s a one-way ticket to excessive perspiration. It also won’t make you look as badass as you think. But Westbrook isn’t like most people. He was able to pull the ensemble off effortlessly from the front row of Givenchy’s Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2015 presentation. NBA players are now front-row fixtures at fashion week, but Westbrook was one of the first to consistently attend shows. And it wasn’t just for the clout that comes along with it.
“I definitely wasn’t the first athlete to go to a show, but I do believe it’s more popular now,” Westbrook told Time in 2017. “I do it for a different reason though, I’m looking at it like business. I’m interested in the different designers that are showing, trying to find ways to improve my knowledge in fashion, meet different people and different influencers.”
The fashion world embraced him. The following year, he debuted an eponymous line of eyewear and the Jordan Westbrook 0 lifestyle sneaker at defunct boutique Colette during Paris Fashion Week. Plenty of us have to look back on our failed experiments with leather jogging pants and T-shirts from this era in disgust. The looks may have aged incredibly poorly, but at least Westbrook has some fond memories to go along with them.
A Kodak Moment, Nov. 3, 2016
Westbrook used his platinum status in the NBA tunnel back in November 2016 for a generational troll of his friend-turned-foe Kevin Durant. That offseason, Durant had jumped ship from the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors, the team that he and Westbrook had just battled in a heated seven-game Western Conference Finals the season prior.
The media was quick to pit the two superstars against each other. So when Westbrook pulled up to his first match against Durant and the Warriors in an orange vest with “Official Photographer” across the chest, many speculated it was a jab at his former teammate. (Durant photographed Super Bowl 50 for The Players’ Tribune in August 2016.)
Westbrook has said it wasn’t that deep. “There’s no story behind it. I don’t wear anything for nobody. I wear what I want to wear when I want to wear it,” he told reporters during a postgame interview at his locker after the game. The vest, he noted, was just something he got from a photographer in Madrid because it looked cool to him. This fit will probably be something a retired Westbrook and Durant laugh about on a couch during a pregame segment one day. Until then, it should be recognized as one of Westbrook’s most notorious ensembles.
Making a Splash, Feb. 3, 2019
We know what you may be thinking: What’s so special about this outfit? Yes, it might be pedestrian by Westbrook’s standards, but peep what he’s carrying. By this point, the pregame tunnel had become a must-see and brands were viewing it as a viable marketing tool. In February 2019, Jordan Brand used the tunnel to unveil a special carrying case for Westbrook’s Super Soaker-inspired Why Not Zer0.2 sneakers, which resembled the iconic toy’s ’90s packaging. Basketball sneakers weren’t as popular in the lifestyle space yet, but this tactic succeeded in getting eyes on the product. Sneaker and street-culture blogs like Sole Collector and Highsnobiety applauded the thoughtful packaging. It was also a clever nod to Lonnie Johnson, the inventor of the Super Soaker, during Black History Month.
Met Gala Ballin’, May 2, 2022
What do Abraham Lincoln, T-Pain, and Russell Westbrook have in common? Frankly, not much. But they all know how to stunt in a top hat. Westbrook’s Thom Browne ensemble for the 2022 Met Gala featured a tailored jacket, long black skirt, striped socks, and the statement piece: a black mesh top hat. He doesn’t attend the big fashion event every year due to conflicting schedules with the NBA season, but when he shows up, best believe Westbrook shows up. You won’t just see him phone it in and rock a black tuxedo. “If you’re just going just to go, then what’s the point,” Westbrook told Esquire ahead of the 2022 Met Gala. The magnitude of the event isn’t lost on him.
“Anna Wintour is a great friend. The opportunity to be one of the few athletes at the Met Gala is not something I take lightly,” says Westbrook. “It is an honor that I am viewed in the esteemed category of the limited few invited to the annual event.”
Being dressed by one of the world’s most prestigious designers for one of the year’s most exclusive fashion events is a dream for plenty of people, but just another day in the life of the Brodie.
