The Westbrook Syndrome
I love sports. My wife…not so much. This is literally the only thing I would change about my wife because she hates sports. I dream of the day she watches an entire game with me and pretends to be interested…sigh…
One of the reasons I love to watch sports is because of my appreciation for greatness. We can debate between Jordan vs Lebron, Federer vs Nadal, Tiger vs Nicklaus, Ronaldo vs Messi, Brady vs the field, Crosby vs Ovechkin…etc but as a sports fan, you have to sometimes sit back and just appreciate greatness. I say this because I’ve learned a valuable lesson recently I’m calling the Westbrook Syndrome.
Russell Westbrook plays in the NBA. He’s great. Is he in the conversation of top 10 greatest players? No. I wouldn’t even put him in my current top 10 (let’s debate). But he’s still great. In the 2016-2017 season, he won the league MVP because he averaged a triple double FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. If you don’t know, it had only been done one other time in the history of the league and it was done by one of the greatest basketball players of all time - Oscar Robertson. Not only had it only been done once, but it was done over 40 years ago and “experts” said it would never happen again. During Russell’s incredible season, ESPN and every other sports network talked about Russell Westbrook ALL. THE. TIME. We truly witnessed greatness. But that’s not where this story ends…
He did it again the following season AND the season after that. That’s right, this man averaged a triple double back-to-back-to-back!!!
Something that had only been done once, 40 years ago, Russell Westbrook did 3 seasons in a row.
You know what’s sad? Many people have to fact check this reality as it’s easy to forget. What’s worse is how rarely it was talked about in the 2018-2019 NBA season. Why? Because he normalized greatness to the point that it was no longer impressive. What was once a primary story line in his MVP campaign was merely a footnote last year.
And if we’re not careful, this is how we can approach Jesus and His Church. It’s easy to begin to not appreciate something you once celebrated because it has become normal and mundane. It’s not that it’s not great anymore; it’s that you’ve allowed your attitude to shift as what used to be important to you now has lost its value because you under-appreciate its worth and greatness.
Change your perspective. As Christians, we have greatness inside of us in the name of Jesus. It’s time we show off for the world.