Browsing: reasons

Russell Westbrook’s extended free agency is finally, mercifully over.

With less than a week to go before the 2025-26 regular season tips off, the Sacramento Kings agreed on a one-year, veteran minimum deal with the future Hall of Famer, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The only real question this answers is which team will Westbrook play for this season. A handful of other questions persist.

• Why did it take so long for Westbrook to be signed in the first place?
• Does he fit with the Kings? What’s his role there?
• And considering this is his sixth team since leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder (a stretch that’s approaching its seventh year), what does this mean for his legacy?

The answer to the first most pressing question, is layered.

When Westbrook declined his player option with the Denver Nuggets for 2025-26, he must’ve assumed there’d be a bit more interest in him this summer.

He and his representation may have misread the evolution of the league and his place in it.

Over the last several years, it has become increasingly important for NBA players to be able to hit jump shots. Those who can’t are easily ignored by defenses that can then devote more energy and resources to the rest of a lineup.

Westbrook’s gotten the treatment for a while now.

So, while he had a traditionally productive campaign for the Nuggets in 2024-25, when he averaged 13.3 points and 6.1 assists in 27.9 minutes and finished seventh in Sixth Man of the Year voting, they had no interest in bringing him back.

Denver was plus-0.1 points per 100 possessions with Russ on the floor, but it was plus-8.4 without him.

The swing was, at least in part, a product of the lack of attention Westbrook commanded as a shooter (as well as the fact that that doesn’t really deter him from shooting). And it’s certainly not a new development.

In the playoffs, when defenses more aggressively scheme for weaknesses, Westbrook’s negative impact has persisted for years and through a variety of situations.

Since the start of the 2017-18 campaign (a timeframe that stretches back into his OKC days), Westbrook has played 1,499 postseason minutes. His teams were minus-9.6 points per 100 possessions during those minutes (compared to plus-1.1 when he was off the floor).

Russ is one of the hardest-playing, highlight-generating, stat-stuffing players in NBA history, but his aggression often leads to chaos. That can be good in small doses.

But with Westbrook, it can mean turnovers, bad shots, bad fouls and inattentiveness on defense.

If all that showed up with LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, and in Denver with Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, it’s hard to imagine things suddenly smoothing out in Sacramento.

Two of the Kings’ three highest-paid players, Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan, don’t command attention as outside shooters. Their new point guard, Dennis Schröder, doesn’t really either.

When Westbrook is on the floor with two or three of the above, the floor-spacing responsibility for Zach LaVine and/or Malik Monk will simply be too great.

Westbrook is now, at least, the fifth King who sometimes needs to dominate the ball to be effective, and it’s hard to imagine how this pairing can work.

If Westbrook starts, the floor could feel painfully cramped. If he’s coming off the bench, he may be able to put up some gaudy traditional numbers, but Sacramento’s second unit has too much unproven talent around him.

The ceiling for the Kings, regardless of Westbrook’s role, is probably a play-in exit. That’s what it was before he joined.

If they end up there, this will have been the sixth conseecutive stop marred by failure, an early end to the campaign or some combination of both.

And that makes it tempting to remember Westbrook as a journeyman or a cancer on several teams with title aspirations.

Plenty of legendary NBA careers closed in less-than-stellar fashion. Kobe Bryant shot 36.4 percent from the field in his last two seasons. Allen Iverson wore a Memphis Grizzlies jersey. Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon repped the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors, respectively.

The list could go on and on.

The decline years may have lasted a bit longer for Westbrook than they did for others, but he should always be known for his time with the Thunder, averaging a triple-double over the course of five years and the competitive spirit he played with at every stop.

If he suddenly finds a more consistent jump shot, plays consistent defense and leads the Kings to a better-than-expected finish in 2025-26, great. If not, Russ is (and will still be) one of the 50(ish) best players in NBA history.

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Rory McIlroy is eager to shift discussion of last month’s Ryder Cup from the dominant theme of unruly spectators to the “incredible†strength of Europe’s display.

Luke Donald and his European team secured back-to-back Ryder Cup wins after reaching what ultimately proved an unassailable position within two of the event’s three days.

The reference point for Bethpage Black, though, has been appalling fan conduct; including significantly towards McIlroy. The Masters champion’s wife was hit by a beer thrown from the galleries at one point, with McIlroy himself subjected to abuse throughout.

McIlroy’s return to the competitive fold, this week at the India Championship, has seen him try to change the topic of conversation. “I’ve been following the narrative coming out of the Ryder Cup just like everyone else,†said the Northern Irishman. “Unfortunately, I think it takes away from what we focused on, which was what an incredible performance it was by the European team.

“As I’m playing my matches, I’m focused on trying to win my point. You see that the other guys are winning their matches or they are doing well but you don’t realise how well they are playing.

“So just over the last two weeks, being able to watch the highlights and just see, especially those first two days, in the foursomes and the fourballs how good the European team were. The Americans would hit it close, we hit it closer. The Americans hole a putt and we hole a putt on top. It happened every single time.

Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy celebrates with the trophy during the presentation after winning the Ryder Cup, Photograph: Paul Childs/Reuters

“The unfortunate thing is people aren’t remembering that and they are remembering the week for the wrong reason. I would like to shift the narrative and focus on how good the European team were and how proud I was to be part of that team to win an away Ryder Cup.â€

In the immediate aftermath of Europe’s win, McIlroy insisted golf should be proud to seek high standards from competitors and spectators. Some believe this presents the sport with a dilemma as it looks to engage youngsters.

“You don’t want your sport to be unwelcoming to newcomers,†McIlroy added. “I absolutely get that. But you also don’t want newcomers coming into the game and ruining centuries of traditions and values of what this game represents or what it upholds. I think there has to be a balance.

“I certainly think that golf can grow but it can grow in a way where the people that are coming into the game still respect and acknowledge that this is a little bit different than maybe other sports. I say it in America all the time, golf doesn’t need to be the NFL. It doesn’t need to be these other sports. Golf is golf, and that’s fine.

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“I’d love more people to watch golf. That would be amazing. But I would be more interested in getting more people to play the game, and I think when people play the game, then they learn and they can acknowledge what golf is, what it represents, and the sort of etiquette and the values that you need to adhere to when you play the game.â€

McIlroy has European teammates Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland for company on his maiden visit to India. Donald is also in the field, with the Englishman yet to decide whether he wants to captain Europe for what would be a third time, at Adare Manor in 2027.

“I think what Luke Donald has done the last two Ryder Cups has revolutionised the captaincy within Europe,†said McIlroy. “The effort and the dedication that Luke Donald has put into the last four years, it’s been absolutely amazing.â€

The best golf events linger in our minds for all the right reasons. Tom Watson at Turnberry in the hot summer of ’77, Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” on car radios all over the world. Big Jack, Augusta, ’86, as he turned back time. Faldo-Norman, a decade later, a study in sportsmanship. Tiger’s 15-shot win at the Open at St. Andrews, in 2000, a study in superiority. The Presidents Cup in South Africa in 2003, the one that ended in a tie at nightfall. Great Moments in Golf.

And then there is this most recent Ryder Cup: Bethpage ’25, lingering for all the wrong reasons.

Tom Watson, as a former American Ryder Cup player (four times) and captain (twice), feeling compelled to apologize to the Europeans, our guests, even though he had no direct connection to this year’s event. “I am ashamed of what happened,” Watson said.

The profane chants by American fans, on the first tee and through the course. A beer tossed (or knocked) in the direction of Rory McIlroy’s wife, Erica. The blanket of litter on this gorgeous public, part of a vast state park, as litter bins were overloaded and then some. In that, the Ryder Cup brought to mind the New York City sanitation workers strike in 1968. I can recall the mountains of trash in front of my grandparents’ apartment building on the Upper West Side that winter.

Let’s not overdo it. It wasn’t like this Ryder Cup was overrun by hooligans, as European football sometimes is. In “Among the Thugs,” Bill Buford captures fanatical fans turning into violent mobs in stunning detail. No scene at Bethpage Black was anything like that. But if the event didn’t make you worry about golf’s direction, you’re asleep at the wheel of your E-Z-GO.

“As a native New Yorker, I feel like I should apologize for what you endured,” I told Rory McIlroy Sunday night. I was actually relieved the Europeans won. The stunning American reversal in Sunday’s singles turned what could have been a European blowout win to a bugs-on-your-skin nailbiter and a 15-13 final tally. The right team won. An American victory would have been a reward for boorish American behavior. It would have encouraged more of the same.

“That’s OK — it’s all good,” McIlroy said. His white team shirt was soaked with sprayed Champagne. I first met McIlroy when he was 19. You’re tempted to say you knew then that he was destined for this big life but a career in golf guarantees nothing. “Anyway,” McIlroy said, “you live in Philadelphia now.”

Because, you know, nothing like this could everhappen in Philadelphia.

The PGA of America is coming to Philadelphia in nine months for its next international golf event, the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink, a stately club on Philadelphia’s Main Line (and 10 miles from a new Tiger Woods learning center at Cobbs Creek, a public course in the city limits). This here-before-you-know-it PGA Championship will provide the PGA of America with a chance to trot out all manner of new-and-improved.

On a higher level, this PGA will give fans an opportunity to show its understanding of one of golf’s most enduring qualities, mannerliness. The British Open does that every year. The Walker Cup does it every other year. Olympic Golf does it every four years. The PGA of America, for well over a century now, has hosted hundreds of exemplary events, for every level of golf. But this most recent Ryder Cup, golf’s biggest event, got away from them. You learn from your mistakes, right? That’s Life 101. In every aspect of life, including our backswings, we all know the importance of making adjustments. The next stateside Ryder Cup is in 2029, at Hazeltine. You walk through a 100 farms from downtown Minneapolis to get there.

On Friday at Bethpage, I interviewed a veteran New York State Park officer, Lt. Kory Barney. He was one of 12 officers patrolling the event by bike, and there were hundreds of other officers on hand from various law enforcement agencies. On Friday, there were scores of Secret Service officers, as Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Ryder Cup.

Barney has worked other golf events at Bethpage. I asked, on that Friday afternoon, if he had ever been on his bike inside the ropes. “No, never,” he said.

Policing the Ryder Cup by bike sounds fun. But it’s serious business

By:

Michael Bamberger

By Saturday afternoon he was. The various law enforcement agencies made a tactical policing shift on Saturday as crowd behavior on a warm afternoon crossed the line from partisan and jingoistic (excepted) to crude and vulgar. We live in crude times.

We really do. We live in crude times. Anybody you don’t agree with, anybody who has a different world view, is a d*ck these days. People, men and women, use that word like it’s nothing.

Ryder Cups are always intense, in their build-up, in their play, in their aftermaths. In a pre-event press conference, Collin Morikawa, a mild-mannered Californian, said this: “I’ll be honest, I think it’s kind of tame so far. I hope Friday is just absolute chaos. I’m all for it. I think it feeds into who we are, as American players and the American team. We want it. We want to use that to our advantage.”

No. No, no, no, no, no.

Morikawa is a bright young man who knows that words matter. You could say that golf does chaos well, inside the ropes on Sunday afternoons when leaderboards are tight and mistakes kill. Most players are freaking. The greatness of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods was how still and focused they became when things were going haywire for the other guys. Heightened fan interest stems from this tingly intensity, this particular inside-the-ropes chaos.

Quick aside: One of the few moving things I saw on Saturday afternoon at Bethpage was Morikawa and Harris English walking the fairways together. Neither was playing. As (one can say in retrospect) an ill-considered alternate-shot team, Morikawa and Harris endured resounding losses on Friday morning and again on Saturday morning. But there they were on Saturday afternoon, attached at the hip, cheering on their fellow Americans. They could not have been feeling on top of the world. They likely wanted to be in a dark, quiet cool room, but they were out for all to see. A little glimpse into what Ryder Cup golf is all about.

But Morikawa’s comment about chaos was beyond ridiculous. Not what Ryder Cup golf is all about.

Tom Watson’s public apology was striking but not surprising. When I came of golf age as a teenager in the mid-1970s, Watson was the most exciting thing in golf and I was drawn to him, as many young fans were. Watson played what I took to be real golf, make-no-excuses golf. Later, as I got to know him as a reporter, Watson struck me as a man who wanted the world (to borrow a phrase) to be at a sort of moral attention forever. The past half-century, since Watson won his first major — the ’75 Open at Carnoustie — the world has become increasingly coarse. What Watson, in word and deed, is saying is that golf can be an oasis, and it should be an oasis. Golf can choose to be mannerly. We control our destiny here.

In my first decade in the game, I played almost all my golf in Suffolk County, Long Island’s eastern county. (Bethpage straddles the Nassau County-Suffolk County border.) My buddies and I played the village-owned course in Bellport, county courses, state courses, public courses owned by local golf-loving men who were happy to break even. We were all New Yorkers to the core, rooting for (this changed from one house to the next) the Mets, Jets, Rangers and Knicks. The New York sports fan was full-throated, famously so. But golf was different. Golf was a place to practice good manners. I caddied some for my high school principal. He had a regular game with another school principal and a course superintendent. They played for something more than pride, but they were mannerly to their core. It was a value of the game.

Which means it should extend to fandom. At the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in 1986, Greg Norman was heckled some. He was the Great White Shark, an Aussie, too perfect for us. We wanted to see Jack Nicklaus produce some one-more-time magic. We wanted to see Tom Watson win a second U.S. Open, or Raymond Floyd win his first. (He did.) Norman’s hecklers did not persist. They were shut down by other fans, by the police and by Norman. The other majors on Long Island, through the years, were charged, but nothing like this year’s Ryder Cup. Other Ryder Cups I have attended, at home and abroad, were nothing like Bethpage Black, not even ’99 at the Country Club in Boston.

It was a rough three days for Colin Montgomerie. More significantly, American players, along with their captain, Ben Crenshaw, and others, should never have rushed the 17th green after Justin Leonard holed that bomb on Sunday — José María Olazábal had a putt to halve the hole all the while. Poor manners, a moment of self-absorption, but none of it was calculated. Just an over-the-top reaction to an over-the-top moment. It was exuberance. Things settled down quickly. But it is maybe true that bad manners have been a growing thing ever since. The Ryder Cup organizers, on both sides of the Atlantic, oversell the thing, in every way. The mainstream golf press is right there, aiding and abetting, turning an exhibition golf match into Premier League football.

At Bethpage, all 12 American players and their caddies, the captain and his five assistants, plus other team personnel in uniform, could have done way more to silence the hooligans. You raise your arms. You point to the troublemakers. You have a policy by which they are thrown out after their first offense, not just escorted elsewhere. The PGA of America could have had many more crowd-control officers among the fans. It could offer some kind of pep talk on the way in, Austin Powers reciting “Oh, be-have” on an endless reel, something like that.

I would like to see the Nicklaus-Jacklin Concession Award become more of a significant thing, where two players, one from each team, are honored for playing the game, at the Ryder Cup and at 30 other events over the course of the year, in the spirit of our golfing forebears. (This year, Tommy Fleetwood received it, without any fanfare.) In general, the closing ceremony should have somemeasure of gravitas and formality to it, as it did for years. This year, the PGA of America president, Don Rea, sort of just handed the trophy to the winners. Would have been far better to see the Americans there. Losing with grace is such a part of the game.

One last thing, in praise of the golf fan, at Bethpage Black and at any other tournament. Surely 99 percent of the fans at Bethpage were responsible golf fans. It is such a difficult sport to watch, to start early, go to some distant parting lot, get shuttled in, climb crowded hills all day in the hope of seeing something meaningful when you’re likely to miss most of the biggest moments. Golf administrators in general have no sense of what the ordinary fans endures in the name of seeing the sport they love. As the world becomes more screen-oriented, and AI leaves an ever-bigger impact on our daily lives, the physical effort it takes to watch a golf tournament, and the communal sense that comes out of the experience, will become only more important. The point is golf must figure out a way to make the fan experience way better than it is. Fans should not be taken for granted. Fans should be able to go to a tournament, actually see some golf and get a day-long break from the coarse ways of everyday life.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

Despite Thelin insisting it is still early in the season and they can quickly catch the sides above should they start winning, it appears that all the credit he gained from lifting the Scottish Cup at the end of last season has disappeared, although the fans also blame chairman Dave Cormack.

Paul: “I’m a big believer in that we’ve hit rock bottom.” Jimmy Thelin after defeat by Dundee United. Where now, Jimmy?

Stewart: Jimmy Thelin needs to go along with Dave Cormack.

Boris: If Thelin still is Aberdeen manager on Monday then it could be suggested that Cormack is clearly wanting us to compete in the Championship as five wins in 33 games is the form of a team dive bombing to relegation.

Kevin: The problem is not at manager level. Look at who Dave the ego has sacked and what they have achieved since.

Stuart: Better from Aberdeen, but still not good enough.

George: Thelin, it’s time to go and take Cormack with you. Managers have been sacked for less.

Scott: Aberdeen throwing that away, chance to win it, just shoot, then a horror goal to concede. I know its done, but that penalty – ref and VAR – I’m not sure they’ve got that right.

Martin: A team like Aberdeen to be rock bottom of the league, no goals, I think it’s time the manager has to go.

Davy: Goodbye, Jimmy. Thanks for the Scottish Cup memories. We need someone for the relegation battle we will obviously be in.

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