HOUSTON — Here, they know the scowl.
They know Russell Westbrook as intense, as driven, as the guy who plays hard and is hard to like. Houston’s newest star has been a Rocket rival, and so the wide smile he wore at the start of a news conference introducing him Friday at the Toyota Center was almost as surreal as the red jersey he held up at the end.
Westbrook made jokes and eye contact — he’s not known for either — and a winning first impression.
A reporter asked what he’d like Rockets fans to know about him as he becomes one of their own, and Westbrook owned the room when he said, “That I’m a nice guy.”
“Obviously, when I’m playing the game and I play basketball, I’m going out to compete. I’m going out to be able to win,” Westbrook said. “And I don’t really care how that looks. I’m always gonna stay that way. But I think off the floor, it’s a huge thing, figuring out that I am human, I am a human being, I am a…
