Dwyane Wade Defends Russell Westbrook After PG Averages Triple-Double

Miami Heat veteran guard Dwyane Wade defended Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook on Thursday, taking to Twitter to suggest that Westbrook doesn't get the respect he deserves.

Westbrook, 29, averaged 25.4 points, 10.3 assists and 10.1 rebounds per game this season, his second straight campaign averaging a triple-double. The defending MVP pulled down 20 rebounds during Wednesday's 137-123 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, assuring he averaged double-digit rebounds and becoming the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double in more than one season. 

Westbrook came into the final game of the season needing 16 rebounds to hit the triple-double mark.

But Westbrook's late rebounding surge—he pulled down 38 rebounds in the team's last two games alone—has left him open to criticism or, at the very least, jokes about stat-padding: 

Westbrook wasn't hearing any of that on Wednesday night, however, per Royce Young of ESPN.com:

"A lot of people make jokes about whatever, stat-padding or going to get rebounds. If people could get 20 rebounds every night, they would. If people could get 15 rebounds, they would. People that's talking or saying whatever they need to say, they should try doing it and see how hard it is.

"Since everybody wants to be talking, I'm tired of hearing the same old rebound this, stealing rebounds, all this s--t. I take pride in what I do. I come out and play, and I get the ball faster than someone else gets to it. That's what it is. If you don't want it, I'm gonna get it. Simple as that."

And Wade wasn't the only one to defend Westbrook: 

Like him or hate him, it's hard to argue that Westbrook remains one of the game's top players.