Westbrook takes out misplaced anger by scoring 46 points

Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook is the NBA’s reigning MVP and his last name starts with the 23rd letter of the English alphabet. But in spite of those two facts, the fiery 29-year old still mistakenly assumed he was picked last by LeBron James for the 2018 All-Star Game when he saw his name at the bottom of the ‘Team LeBron’ roster, which happened to be in alphabetical order. 

The furious Westbrook may have been wrong, but he still took his frustration out on the visiting Washington Wizards on Thursday night by dropping in a season-high 46 points in a 121-112 win.

‘I see I was the last pick on the list,’ Westbrook told reporters, according to ESPN. ‘I was just trying to figure out how.’

For the first time in NBA history, All-Star rosters were picked by two captains, Cleveland Cavaliers legend LeBron James and another former MVP, Golden State guard Stephen Curry. The two picked from a pre-selected pool of All-Stars on Tuesday. But since the NBA Players Association did not want to broadcast the event and potentially embarrass whomever was picked last, the draft was kept in-house.

The bottom line is, the public does not know who was picked first, last, or anywhere in between. But, when James tweeted out the rosters on Thursday, Westbrook saw his name at the very bottom of Team LeBron.

Westbrook is notorious for using any perceived slight as motivation on the court, which has led to speculation that teammates and former All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Paul George put the mistaken belief that he was picked last in their point guard’s head.

After being told the rosters in James’s tweet were in alphabetical order, Westbrook immediately called over to Anthony.

‘See, I told you, man, alphabetical order, man,’ Westbrook shouted. ‘Of course I was first; of course! What you talking about?’

‘It was just alphabetical, it was alphabetical,’ George told reporters. ‘LeBron loves Russ, so I doubt he’d pick Russ last.’

And as if being picked last wasn’t enough motivation for Thursday’s game, the name above Westbrook’s on the Team LeBron roster was that of John Wall, who happened to be starting at point guard for the Wizards on Thursday opposite Westbrook.

Wall did not play well particularly poorly on Thursday, scoring 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting and adding a dozen assists

However, he was no match for Westbrook, who had 21 points in the fourth quarter alone.