The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Thunder’s Big Three shooting for first title
OKLAHOMA CITY » Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and Paul George have accomplished nearly everything in their basketball careers.
Westbrook is a two-time scoring champion, twotime All-Star Game MVP and the reigning league MVP. Anthony is a 10time All-Star and threetime Olympic gold medalist. George is a four-time All-Star, former most improved player award winner and an Olympic gold medalist.
None of the new Oklahoma City Thunder teammates have an NBA title.
They say that is what drives this version of the NBA’s latest Big Three.
“It’s a different energy, a different focus, a different motivation that myself have, Paul has and Russ has, being that we haven’t won a championship yet in our careers,” Anthony said. “We see that, and that’s our ultimate goal.”
It’s every NBA player’s goal, but few have what it takes to win a title or are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get to the top.
Westbrook, who recently signed a reported five-year, $205 million extension with OKC, averaged a triple-double last season and broke Oscar Robertson’s single-season record for triple-doubles in a season with 42. But he didn’t have much help offensively, and the Thunder lost to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
Oklahoma City added George in an offseason trade with Indiana , then once the possibility of Anthony leaving New York became real, George helped Anthony add Oklahoma City to his list of possible destinations since he had a no-trade clause in his contract.
“You know, it’s awesome to have guys that want to play alongside you and team up with you and share a mission with you, so we got right to it,” George said. “The same for Russ. Those two are pretty close. We all were kind of in the loop on what was going on and we made it possible.”
For this union to work there will need to be sacrifices, especially by Anthony. He has been a lead scorer his entire career, and last season, he averaged 22.4 points. He is the No. 25 scorer in NBA history with more than 24,000 points.