Russell Westbrook’s One-of-One Career With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus College Football and Coaches With Van Lathan and Chris Ryan
August 17, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readThe most discussed, argued-about player of the entire Grantland/Ringer era is gone. Russell Westbrook retired after 18 NBA seasons, and Bill Simmons and Kirk Goldsberry spent a long segment unpacking a career they called "the strangest of any top-75 guy ever." The conversation was a full accounting: the counting stats, the playoff failures, the 2017 MVP debate, the shot charts, and the central tension that defined him. Later, Simmons sat down with Van Lathan and Chris Ryan to talk college football coaching hierarchies, the state of the NBA coaching profession, and the strange dynamics of superstar-led teams.
The One-of-One Career of Russell Westbrook
Simmons opened by reading a column he wrote in June 2012, after Game 4 of the NBA Finals. He had already identified Westbrook as the most polarizing player in that series, and he introduced his "10% theory" — the idea that even the best NBA players have holes, and Westbrook's hole was his recklessness. "He brings a ton of things to the table and takes a few things off too," Simmons wrote. That never changed. Westbrook never won a title, never returned to the Finals after 2012, and never totally figured out the balance between competitive and reckless.
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What you'll learn
- 1 Russell Westbrook’s One-of-One Career With Kirk Goldsberry, Plus College Football and Coaches With Van Lathan and Chris Ryan
- 2 (01:06) **Housekeeping and Episode Preview** - Simmons runs through recent Rewatchables episodes, teases the upcoming Speed episode, and explains his strategy of saving NFL takes for late August before previewing the two-part episode: a deep dive on Russell Westbrook's career with Kirk Goldsberry, followed by college football and coaching talk with Van Lathan and Chris Ryan.
- 3 (04:44) **Introducing the Westbrook Career Retrospective** - Simmons and Goldsberry set up the segment using Simmons' old "Book of Basketball" pyramid format, with Simmons reading a 2012 column about Westbrook's polarizing nature during the 2012 Finals.
- 4 (12:33) **The Uniqueness of Westbrook's Career** - Simmons argues Westbrook has the strangest career of any top-75 player ever, with unmatched counting stats but a bizarre trajectory.
- 5 (16:37) **Westbrook as Spectacle and Competitor** - The conversation shifts to Westbrook's unmatched intensity and entertainment value, which transcends analytical criticism.
- 6 (24:52) **Five Things You Need to Know About Westbrook** - Simmons runs through his prepared categories, starting with Westbrook's one-on-three fast break ability and his place among the best guards of the last 20 years.
- 7 (31:30) **The 2017 MVP Debate** - Simmons and Goldsberry revisit the three-way MVP race between Westbrook, Harden, and Kawhi Leonard.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Kirk Goldsberry to take a deep dive into Russell Westbrook’s unique career. Then, CR and Van Lathan join the pod to talk college football before diving into a deeper conversation about coaching.
(0:00) Intro
(3:44) Russell Westbrook’s career
(01:24:50) College football and coaching
Host: Bill Simmons
Guests: Kirk Goldsberry, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan
Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo
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