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Russell Westbrook’s Unexpected Moment with Jalen Green in Loss to Rockets

Posted on January 16, 2025 - 1:27 pm by

This is yet another reminder that Russell Westbrook is getting old.

On Wednesday night, Russell Westbrook took on a heavier workload than usual for the Denver Nuggets amid Nikola Jokic’s injury. Jokic, of course, is as big of an absence as anyone, and with Jalen Green leading the charge for the Houston Rockets with another hyper-efficient scoring night (34 points on 10-16 shooting from the field), the Nuggets fell flat en route to a 128-108 defeat.

In the middle of the game, Green was feeling himself, and perhaps rightfully so considering how on fire he has been as of late. The Rockets guard ended up talking some smack towards Westbrook’s direction, which caught the Nuggets guard a bit by surprise since it wasn’t that long ago that Green was one of the best players for the 2017 NBA MVP’s “Why Not” AAU team.   “God damn boy! He used to play on my AAU team talking to me like I’m a little a** kid,” Westbrook said as he chirped to the Rockets bench about Green, via @TheWestbrookEra on X, formerly Twitter.

Time moves so quickly; it was only back in 2019 when Green was a part of Westbrook’s AAU team, but now, the Rockets guard is a grown man who’s on an upward trajectory in his career. Meanwhile, the Nuggets guard has undergone his fair share of career difficulties since that time, although he’s found a new lease in life in the Mile High City, striking an incredible partnership with reigning MVP Jokic.

The fun thing about watching the Nuggets guard play, even in his older age, is that he has no friends on the court other than his teammates as long as there is a single second left on the game clock. So even though Westbrook acts as some sort of an uncle towards Green, he is not backing down from any challenge, hence this full-circle moment.