Oklahoma City will retire Russell Westbrook's No. 0 on Feb. 7

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced Monday that they will retire Russell Westbrook's No. 0 in the rafters on Feb. 7.

Westbrook retired this offseason after an 18-year career. He made nine All-Star teams and nine All-NBA teams, and he won the 2016-17 MVP award.

All but one of those All-Star and All-NBA seasons came with the Thunder, where he averaged 23.0 points, 8.4 assists, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.

The date gives the franchise a home game in February to stage the ceremony around.

Westbrook was a first-round pick of the organization in 2008, just days before the team officially became the Thunder after relocating from Seattle.

He played the first 11 years of his career in Oklahoma City and paired with Kevin Durant to turn a young roster into one of the best teams in the league.

After Durant left in free agency, Westbrook's stature in the city grew rather than shrank.

The next season he became the first player to average a triple-double for an entire season since Oscar Robertson, going for 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists, and he was named league MVP.

General manager Sam Presti's statement was about legacy rather than statistics. He said many players make an impact but only great players leave one behind, and that Westbrook's was built on the court and in the community.

Presti also described the mindset as relentless and the commitment as deep, which is the language a front office uses when it is trying to explain a player who was hard to categorize.

The timing is not accidental. Oklahoma City has lost three starters to long-term injuries this season, and the question of whether Westbrook might return to help had been asked out loud.

Presti shut it down last week, saying he had not thought about anything relative to the roster spot.

The second half of Westbrook's career was a tour of the league. Oklahoma City traded him to Houston before the 2019-20 season, and he moved on to Washington, the Lakers, the Clippers, Denver and Sacramento.

He remained productive in those stops, but he never found a permanent home, and the jersey retirement resolves that in the way franchises usually do: by returning the player to the city where he mattered most.

His Oklahoma City years are the part of the record that will be on the banner. Three straight seasons averaging a triple-double, an MVP and a Finals appearance.

The number will hang next to the franchise's other defining figures.

Jersey retirements are usually about a player and a city agreeing on what a stretch of years meant. This one is unusually clear.

Westbrook arrived as a raw athletic guard, became the face of a franchise after Durant left, and produced a statistical season that had not happened in more than half a century.

The ceremony will be full, and it will also be a reminder of how the current Thunder roster was built. The franchise that drafted him is now the one that has to replace three injured starters.

Feb. 7 is the date. The rest is the argument about where he ranks.

The jersey retirement also says something about how the franchise thinks about its history. Oklahoma City has been careful about which players it honors, and Westbrook is the first of the modern era.

The ceremony will bring back the the Finals Finals team, which is the closest the franchise has come to a title since moving from Seattle.

His career after Oklahoma City never produced a championship, and that is part of the story too.

The number itself is unusual. Very few players in league history have had zero retired.

For the current team, the timing is a distraction in a good way. A February ceremony is something to look forward to in a long season.

Until then, the roster questions remain.

The retirement also closes a loop for the organization. Oklahoma City traded Westbrook in 2019 to begin the rebuild that produced the current roster.

That rebuild is now the best team in the Western Conference, which makes the jersey retirement a celebration of two eras at once.

It also ends the speculation about a comeback. Presti's answer last week was polite and final, and Monday's announcement made it permanent.

The ceremony will be in February, and the Thunder will have a game to play that night.

Oklahoma City's next home game is not until later in the month, which is part of why the date was chosen.

The ceremony will include the the Finals Finals team, which is the closest the franchise has come to a title.

Westbrook's number will be the first retired by the Thunder since the franchise moved from Seattle.

The Thunder's current roster has three starters out, which is why the ceremony will be as much about the future as the past.

Westbrook's No. 0 will be the first number retired by the franchise since it moved from Seattle.

The Feb. 7 date falls on a night Oklahoma City hosts a Western Conference opponent.