“You Gotta Give Him His Flowers,” Patrick Beverley Says Russell Westbrook Is the 2nd Greatest PG Ever

Patrick Beverley stirred debate over the NBA’s all-time point guard rankings when he said Russell Westbrook is the second-greatest player ever at the position behind only Stephen Curry. While acknowledging Curry’s edge because of his shooting and championship success, Beverley defended Westbrook’s legacy by pointing to his relentless competitiveness and the criticism he absorbed during his Lakers stint.

Beverley even went further and suggested Westbrook belongs in the greatest-point-guard-ever conversation if the debate is centered on skill, talent, and individual numbers rather than rings. The 37-year-old Greek Basketball League player believes the Lakers years distorted public memory of Westbrook.

He has repeatedly defended Russ as a ferocious competitor and someone whose reputation took a hit because the Los Angeles fit went poorly in the league’s loudest market. Beverley is arguing that public discourse started judging Westbrook by the awkward ending instead of the peak that came before it.

Beverley has played with Westbrook and spoken before about gaining respect for him up close, which gives the praise some insider credibility even if the historical conclusion remains controversial. Players often value pressure, pace, force, and nightly competitive intensity in ways that fans and analysts do not always capture cleanly in legacy debates. Beverley sounds like a former teammate defending a quality he saw firsthand.

1. Rings, Records, or Revolution? The Criteria for All-Time NBA Point Guard Greatness

For decades, Magic Johnson has usually been treated as the standard at point guard because of his championships, playmaking, playoff résumé, and role at the center of a dynasty. Curry later reshaped that discussion by becoming arguably the greatest shooter ever, winning four titles, collecting two MVPs, and altering the geometry of modern offense. On résumé alone, the traditional list has rarely put Westbrook above both of them. But Beverley’s take becomes more interesting when the criteria are narrowed. If the question is not “Who had the most complete legacy?” but instead “Who produced the most overwhelming individual point-guard profile?” Westbrook becomes much harder to dismiss. He won an MVP, led the league in scoring twice, led it in assists three times, made nine All-NBA teams, and turned the triple-double from novelty into routine. That is a historically unusual package for a primary ballhandler. The position of a point guard itself is interpreted differently across eras. Some point guards are floor generals first. Some are scorers who happen to initiate offense. Some are offensive systems unto themselves. Curry is the most scalable and transformative shooter the position has ever seen, while Westbrook is one of the most explosive volume creators and athletes the position has ever seen. They stretch the definition of the role in different directions. Championships complicate everything. Beverley’s own wording concedes that Curry gets the nod because of rings and shooting, but he also resists using team success as the primary separator in an individual ranking. That is a classic NBA argument. One side says winning at the highest level should be the ultimate criterion. The other says team context can blur who was actually better as an individual player. Beverley is clearly in the second camp.

2. Stephen Curry vs. Russell Westbrook: The Ultimate Clash of NBA Point Guard Legacies

Curry’s greatness is built on distortion. Defenses have to guard him several feet beyond the arc, and that warps spacing before the possession even begins. His off-ball movement, release speed, and shooting volume created a new template for what a point guard could be, and his teams turned that advantage into titles. He is also the all-time leader in made three-pointers, which is not just a record but a symbol of how fully he changed the league’s offensive language. Westbrook’s greatness, by contrast, is built on collision. At his peak, he pressured the rim, the glass, and the tempo all at once. He did not bend defenses with spacing; he overwhelmed them with force, pace, and constant action. That made him a very different kind of point guard from Curry, but not a lesser historical figure by default. He simply pursued value through a far more physical and volatile style. The contrast shows up in how each player is remembered. Curry is associated with efficiency, elegance, and system-level transformation. Westbrook is associated with ferocity, accumulation, and competitive extremity. One became the emblem of modern shooting basketball; the other became the emblem of the triple-double age. Both changed expectations for the position, just in opposite directions. It is also important to note that both players own forms of uniqueness that are unlikely to be replicated cleanly. Curry’s shooting volume and accuracy combination remains unprecedented, while Westbrook’s triple-double record has climbed to 207 in the NBA’s official tracking and 209 on Basketball-Reference’s career leader page. That underscores how absurdly far he pushed a stat once considered almost untouchable.

3. Is Russell Westbrook’s Statistical Firepower Enough to Dethrone Stephen Curry’s Unmatched Efficiency and Championship Legacy?

If Beverley wants the conversation to start with production, Westbrook has real ammunition. He is a former MVP, a nine-time All-Star, a nine-time All-NBA selection, a two-time scoring champion, and a three-time assists leader. He is fifth on the NBA/ABA career assists list, and in terms of all-time assists, he is placed inside the top five. He has also become the highest-scoring point guard in NBA history. There is even more volume-based evidence in Westbrook’s favor. He stands as the all-time leader in points by a point guard, while he also sits atop guards in career rebounds. Those numbers help explain Beverley’s claim. Westbrook piled up elite totals in scoring, playmaking, rebounding, and triple-doubles in a way that very few guards in any era can approach. Curry’s countercase, though, is the reason Beverley himself still puts him first. Curry is a four-time NBA champion, a two-time MVP, an 11-time All-NBA selection, and the all-time leader in made threes. His career profile combines elite individual honors with the strongest team success of any active point guard. That matters because historical rankings tend to reward players who paired peak brilliance with the clearest championship imprint. Curry’s career numbers come with much better shooting efficiency and a level of offensive scalability that translated directly to championship offense. Westbrook’s numbers are more expansive across categories, but Curry’s are easier to plug into the postseason ideal of elite offense with fewer trade-offs. As it stands, Westbrook has a stronger statistical case than many casual debates acknowledge, and he absolutely belongs in the inner circle of all-time point guards. However, clearly, Curry still has the cleaner overall historical argument.

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• Russell Westbrook
• Stephen Curry
• Patrick Beverley