“They should try doing it and see how hard it is,” Russell Westbrook said in 2018, the last time he was accused of stat padding. And it seems the bold opinions are back after Ryan Clark’s remark. The sports analyst targeted how the veteran delivers on stats but fades away when he’s under pressure. The Nuggets point guard has been in bad light for a long time and even his wife took a stand publicly against Ryan for this remark, asking the analyst on Instagram to at least wait for the regular season before the slandering.

Well, Westbrook‘s wife received more support from Gilbert Arenas and his analyst crew. Understanding the hardships of a professional hooper to deliver on a given day, the ex-Warriors star gave him his due credit. During a recent discussion on Gil’s Arena, he expressed, “It was like they were trying to discredit his triple-doubles because it was too easy for him… While trying to say hey these stats aren’t really real. You became disrespectful to the man who was doing it.”

Beastbrook holds the record for 199 triple-doubles, which just seems unreal, as only Oscar Robertson, an NBA legend and 12x NBA All-Star, is remotely close to the Nuggets guard. Apart from Nikola Jokic, who’s currently 4th with 130 triple-doubles, no player from the current realm has the potential to match what Westbrook achieved. For further perspective, the mighty LeBron James is 5th on that list, achieving the feat 112 times across his illustrious career.

NBA legend Magic Johnson holds the third place with 138 triple-doubles. Unexpectedly, Gilbert Arenas went after the NBA legend, drawing an analogy to shut down stat padding accusations on Russell Westbrook. “If it was that easy, why isn’t everyone trying it? When Magic Johnson was trying to catch John Stockton in assists? You don’t think he was going out there trying to forcefully make assists or making passes he shouldn’t be really trying to make or turning down shots to get an assist.”

Well, Russell Westbrook is not the only one to face such accusations. Even John Stockton, whom Magic Johnson was once chasing, faced the same fate. But it was an organizational blame rather than an individual.

An NBA Hall of Famer who gets discredited just like Russell Westbrook for his unbelievable stats!

John Stockton, one of the greatest hoopers in NBA history, holds the record for all-time assist count of 15,806. However, a narrative that always hovered around the league regarding the Hall of Famer was that the Utah Jazz stat keepers inflated it. And that was controversially deemed as a reason why Jason Kidd did not surpass the Jazz legend. Even Arenas accused Stockton of “overpassing”. Well, the records showcase that Stockton earned more assists in the known confines of Salt Palace and Delta Center than he did on away courts. Overall, Stockton averaged 10.9 assists at home and 10.1 assists on the road.

Surprisingly, Magic Johnson’s averages were better than Stockton, standing at 12.4 and 11.8, home and away respectively. Yet the NBA legend only holds 10,141 overall career assists while Stockton is in his own league in that department.

Well, don’t assume too soon that someone tampered with these stats to inflate them. It is a 7.3% difference and the average home benefit for assists in the league for NBA players is about 10.1%. So, it might be safe to assume that Stockton did everything under the domain of his skills. It was never an outside support but just a factor that tarnished the humongous stat on the charts.

The same is happening with Russell Westbrook. The NBA veteran is too good to catch, though his championship count is a concern. The only reason he gets questioned is due to the lack of any ring in his career. Do you think the same? Let us know in the comments.

Before you go, remember to check out this crossover between BG12 and Georgia Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr.