During the Rising Stars Challenge played yesterday between team World and Team USA both consisted exclusively out of rookies and sophomores co-commentators Grant Hill and Chris Webber (both of whom won the Rookie of the Year award in their first year in the league) compared Zach LaVine to a young Russell Westbrook.

[su_button url=”http://www.interbasket.net/forums/” target=”blank” style=”soft” size=”3″ wide=”no” center=”no” icon=”icon: comments-o”]Discuss this on our forum[/su_button]

The young Minnesota combo guard has tons of similarities with Westbrook and his first year in the league. Both of them have entered the league as explosive SG, but were forced to learn the PG position early in their career. They’re also UCLA alumni, but LaVine entered the NBA two years earlier than Westbrook.

The court-side reporter asked James Harden, who was sitting in the first row during the Rising Stars Challenge, are there really so much similarities between LaVine and 21-year-old version of Westbrook. James Harden was pretty clear that he thinks how Zach LaVine is even more athletic than Westbrook was at his age. Let us remind you that Westbrook and Harden played lots of high school basketball against each other as they were in neighboring districts while growing up in Los Angeles.

LaVine is 2 inches higher than Westbrook and has a better basic shooting technique compared to Oklahoma’s explosive point guard. Here’s a little comparison between the two.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjiTOWp_1Ss” width=”460″ height=”340″]