Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook has been one of the most polarizing players since he entered the NBA. Some think he is instrumental to winning, while others think that he has held back every team he's been onto some degree. In an ESPN story, Westbrook fired back at his haters with a defiant message.

“People have never seen any player like me before,” Westbrook told ESPN. “When people do things that have never been done before, people's first response is to point out the negatives of why it happened, how it happened. And that's reality. That's the world we live in. For me, that's why I'm OK with being comfortable in doing the things I'm doing for the game and trying to win, and I can live with that.”

Those are some strong words from Lakers star Russell Westbrook. Westbrook does have a point, though. Few players in the history of the NBA can match his combination of passion, athleticism and do-it-all ability on the court. There really haven't been many players like Westbrook.

This is a player who did something- average a triple-double for a season- that people thought would never happen again after Oscar Robertson did it. And Westbrook went on to accomplish that feat three more times in his career.

That's what Russ is talking about. All people mention when they talk about him is the turnovers while they fail to acknowledge the great things about the Lakers star.

And that's fine with Westbrook, who said he's comfortable doing everything in his power out on the court to win, and if the Lakers win, great. If they don't, he knows that he did everything in his power to get the win, but that they fell just short.

Westbrook can live with that. The question is, can Lakers fans?