MVP’s memorable year began long before season started

(TNS)—Russell Westbrook, with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, bolted onto the blue carpet that led to Chesapeake Arena last Aug. 4. The day was hot and sunny. And still a cloud lifted.

Oklahoma City had been in a month-long pall. You know why. Gloom, despair and agony on us.

Then word trickled out that Westbrook was going to sign a one-year contract extension, and soon enough the entire state had gathered in downtown OKC, in spirit if not in body, to celebrate Westbrook’s announcement that he would rather fight than switch.

Monday night in New York, Westbrook won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. The voters just said there was too much. Too much statistical evidence, with the season triple double that matched Oscar Robertson’s previously-singular feat 55 years ago. Too much late-game dramatics, with clutch shot after clutch shot. Too much influence on a Thunder team that would have been derelict without Westbrook and would have been several wins shy of its eventual 47 without his crunch-time heroics.

All those autumn and winter and spring nights certainly made for rousing basketball and wild entertainment. Voters were won over by Westbrook’s historic season.

But Oklahomans know Westbrook’s value in a much deeper way.

When sports fans debate the MVP — and sports fans always debate the MVP — they talk about stats and production and victories and huge plays. They compare. They talk about the “Most” in MVP. They sometimes forget the “Valuable” in MVP.

Westbrook’s value in the last 12 months goes far beyond those remarkable feats on the hardwood. Westbrook picked up not just a team in 2016-17. He picked up a franchise and a city and a state that all were reeling in the wake of Kevin Durant’s decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors.

Durant’s departure did more than leave an unfillable void on the Thunder roster. It left Oklahomans wounded that their greatest hero had fled and wondering if they could ever trust enough to feel the same about an athlete. Wondering if Westbrook was the next out the door, since he was eligible for free agency in summer 2017. Wondering if trading Westbrook was the best move, to avoid the possible pain of losing a second Thunder cornerstone.

Then Westbrook rode down Reno Avenue, pranced through a human tunnel of Thunder fans and entered The ‘Peake to pledge an extra year’s allegiance to OKC, which was the most he could do at the time.

And Oklahoma exhaled. The NBA future suddenly seemed OK. No Durant, which meant no title contention, at least not on the near horizon. But hope had returned. Westbrook was not catching the last train for the coast.

The Thunder would be relevant. The Thunder would be competitive. The Thunder would be interesting. No one knew then how interesting; no one knew then that Westbrook would climb Oscar Mountain and post a season for the ages.

But Westbrook’s value was sealed on Aug. 4. Westbrook gave Oklahomans the freedom to again feel good about the NBA. To feel good about the franchise that had brought such acclaim to the city and the state.

Value doesn’t always have to be measured in points and rebounds and assists.

So while Westbrook’s game-sealing dunk over Clint Capela and his half-court bounce pass between Cory Joseph’s legs and his game-ending, solo 15-0 run against Memphis and his triple double against Philly without a missed shot and his game-winner to eliminate Denver all were pieces of an MVP pie, his value never was higher than a summer’s day long before the historic season launched.

The season was rather eventful, too, and now Westbrook has the hardware to show what Thunder fans have known since Aug. 4.