While the first few weeks of the NBA season haven't exactly been great for the Sacramento Kings, it's hard not to be enthused by Russell Westbrook. He's been making history all season, including recently taking the 18th spot on the all-time scoring leaderboard from Paul Pierce.
Westbrook came into his 18th season in the league with a lot of question marks. A big one was where he was going to play as the Nuggets apparently asked him to take his player option and leave after the 2024-2025 season. There haven't been many further details on that odd development.
Regardless of the past, Russell has been having himself one heck of a season. He's still chalking up triple-doubles and double-doubles. Westbrook has played so well that he's taken over as the starting point guard from Dennis Schroder, who is definitively playing better off the bench.
On top of all that, Westbrook has had a few historic moments in the 2025-2026 season so far. He became only the eighth player to collect 10,000+ assists, and only the second to do it with 25,000+ points in the bag. The first person to do it was, not surprisingly, LeBron James.
Westbrook keeps making history with the Kings
As part of their current road trip, the Kings stopped by San Antonio to take on the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama on the sidelines. Sacramento unfortunately picked up another loss, their sixth in a row. At least the margin was well under 20 points because they have been blown out a few times.
That didn't stop Westbrook from chasing down another piece of history. He scored enough points to step above Hall of Famer Paul Pierce on the NBA's all-time scoring leaderboard. On top of that, he's less than 100 points behind Tim Duncan and could still rise to the 17th spot this season.
Russell Westbrook is 37 years old, a ripe old age for an NBA starting point guard, and is in his 18th season in the league. Keep in mind that the average career length for an NBA player is roughly five years. It's impressive that Westbrook is still playing such high caliber basketball at this point.
Unfortunately, all of this history is being made against the backdrop of a terrible season for Sacramento. But if you're a Kings' fan and the type of person to always look on the bright side of life, then consider Russell Westbrook a ray of sunshine peeking through the dark clouds.