Former UCLA Bruins star and current Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook is declining his $3.4 million player option to return to Denver in the 2025-26 season, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
This means the 36-year-old former MVP will be a free agent starting June 30.
Westbrook in his first season with the Nuggets played 75 games and averaged 13.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds on 44.9/32.3/66.1 shooting splits in 27.9 minutes per game.
The 17-year veteran was an integral part of Denver’s second unit over the course of the season. Westbrook was often the source of an otherwise absent energy off the bench and in the non-Nikola Jokic minutes.
Westbrook, a nine-time All-Star, two-time scoring champ, 2017 MVP and all-time triple-doubles leader, has played for the Thunder, Rockets, Wizards, Lakers and Clippers along with Denver.
Should he sign with a new team this offseason, he will have been on seven different teams over the last eight seasons of his career.
Westbrook spent two season with UCLA, playing in 75 games and averaging 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game over his Bruins career.
In the 2007-08 season, he started 34 games and earned Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the All-Pac-10 Conference’s third team.
The Bruins advanced to the Finals Four in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, inevitably losing to Memphis. Westbrook helped UCLA win the Pac-10 tournament and regular season titles while averaging 12.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
In UCLA’s loss to Memphis in the Final Four, Westbrook scored a college-career-high 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting, knocking down 2-of-3 3-point attempts.
Over the course of Westbrook’s two seasons in Westwood, the Bruins went 65-10 overall with a 31-5 conference record. Some of his notable teammates over that time were Kevin Love, Darren Collison, Arron Afflalo and Luc Mbah a Moute.
Westbrook was drafted fourth overall by the Seattle Supersonics in the 2008 NBA Draft less than a week before the franchise moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder.
He is arguably the franchise’s most iconic player in history and will undoubtedly be a first-ballot hall of famer.
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