Basketball: The most interesting man in the NBA

Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Photo / Getty

For a player who wears zero on his back, it's appropriate Russell Westbrook's pursuit of a set of famous round numbers is the most prominent story in the opening quarter of the NBA season.

Sure, there are other appealing narratives, like whether Kevin Durant's assimilation into the Warriors is going well (it is) or whether Golden State and Cleveland are already positioning themselves for the third instalment in a trilogy of championship showdowns (they are). But Westbrook is presently the most interesting man in the NBA.

Which, from the moment the Warriors lured Durant from the Thunder, was predictable. How Westbrook would react without his fellow All Star, the man he had played beside his entire career, was always going to intrigue.

Less predictable, though: quite the level of performance Westbrook is consistently reaching.

Through 20 games, the Oklahoma City guard is averaging 31.2 points, 11.3 assists and 10.5 rebounds. Yes, that's good for a triple-double average, that uniquely-basketball statistic describing reaching double digits in three different categories. And yes, that's historic.

Oscar Robertson famously averaged a triple-double through the 1961-62 campaign and, two years later, did it again for 67 games before falling just short of repeating his feat. But basketball was a different sport in that era, a faster pace creating around 30 more available rebounds and 30 more shot attempts every game.

In other words, such all-round statistical supremacy was easier to accomplish. Since Robertson hung up his shoes, the longest into a season a player had averaged a triple-double was Magic Johnson in 1981-82, when he managed all of eight games.

Westbrook, to repeat, has done it for 20, and it appears as if only injury could cause any significant slide in scoring, rebounding or setting up his teammates. Or those teammates scuppering his chances: "I gotta start boxing him out," joked Enes Kanter. "He's not leaving any rebounds for the bigs."

It certainly is notable their six-foot-three (1.92m) guard handily leads the Thunder in rebounding, ahead of the towering duo of Kanter and Kiwi Steven Adams. Westbrook's current rate almost doubles his career average of 5.8 boards per game and, given rebounding is about effort as much as technique, such an increase suggests an similar intensification in desire, not in chasing Robertson but ensuring the Thunder thrive without Durant.

After all, asked whether averaging a triple-double for the season is sustainable, Westbrook replied, "Winning is sustainable." Already a player with an almost unhealthy level of competitiveness, it's easy to accept that, after being spurned by Durant, Westbrook sincerely believes the cliche about the only number mattering being the one of the scoreboard.

For the rest of us, though, it's impossible to avoid the tantalising prospect of the Thunder man maintaining double-digit averages in three categories, surpassing a trio of round numbers that are somehow at once arbitrary and incredibly meaningful.

Sport might not need numbers to flourish; football has coped fine with little statistical input while few fans could answer how many players surpassed 1000 running metres in the last Super Rugby season (six, apparently).

But in codes like basketball or baseball, there's no separating statistics - both traditional and advanced - from what happens on the field. And that is a very good thing.

Because numbers offer a greater understanding in sport, providing everyone from coaches to supporters the chance to confirm with concrete data what they think they have seen with their eyes.

And numbers create context, allowing us to compare across eras and see what Westbrook is currently accomplishing would, if it continues for the next 62 games, count among the greatest individual seasons in NBA history.