Except they never did, just as we never quite adjusted to the fact that Westbrook could do pretty much anything, at any time, against whomever happened to be in his way. To say Westbrook was dominant suggests that he even acknowledged the other team. This was a spree, a rampage: It was inspiring but also unsettling. Things had gone too far but we also really, really didn't want them to end. No one could stop Russell Westbrook, and even he probably couldn't have stopped himself.

That's not to say that Westbrook was out of control or somehow detrimental to the Thunder—on the contrary, he's probably a better point guard than he's ever been at any other point in his career—but that he went full-bore all year, as if there were no other option. As if he truly didn't know any other way. On top of that, Russ acted like high level of play was just a matter of fact. He burned so that the whole world burned with him. For Westbrook, there was no difference between dropping 40 points and returning to action with a broken face after missing only one game. There was nothing but the basketball court and his need to wreak havoc on it.

All of which begs the question: Exactly what was Russell Westbrook playing for? Technically, the Thunder could've made the playoffs on the last day, but without Durant or Ibaka, they were almost certain to bow out early. Was it reputation? If so, he certainly succeeded in silencing his critics and proving that he's anything but a mere sidekick to Kevin Durant. Was it pride, honor, his teammates, or any of the other standard devices that keep a player going through a tough, at times futile, season? None of this really seems to account for what Russell Westbrook just did. His play regularly defied everything we thought we knew about basketball; what motivated him is just as unfathomable a topic.

Denton Van Zan wanted to kill a dragon because it was an existential threat to mankind. I don't think Westbrook was trying to exorcise demons or make some larger statement about himself and the game. We'll never know for sure—who knows if Westbrook even does—but to me, this season looks like the ultimate example of an athlete being given the opportunity to be himself.

I'm not saying this in some warm-and-fuzzy or "Russ Being Russ" kind of way. Think of it as the opposite of Van Zan, who wanted it to die, no matter what. Russell Westbrook wanted to bring himself alive like never before. Because he had to, because he wanted to, because he could—because this season, no one told him not to.

Unfortunately, as with that guy who jumped into the face of the dragon, for Westbrook, this had to end at some point. That's not to say we've seen the last of this Russell Westbrook. But if this season was a triumph for the Thunder guard, it also was never going to last forever. If nothing else, the man needs a break. And if there's one thing we know about Russ, it's that he was never going to take it on his own.