UCLA’s Westbrook relies on strong roots

PHOENIX -- Easter Sunday, sunny Gardena, around noon, his belly full of breakfast, his day full of wonderful nothing, Russell Westbrook Jr. settles into his soft couch in front of his color television.

At which point, his son with the same name walks through the front door.

This is the son who barely 12 hours earlier competed in the most emotional victory of UCLA’s basketball season.

This is the son who ended that game with a single dunk and a solitary scream that incited the roar of thousands.

“Happy Easter,” Little Russell said.

“Happy Easter,” Big Russell said.

“You want to go shoot?” Little Russell said.

“You want to go what?” Big Russell said.

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For all the talk of national tradition and historical treasures, the heart of UCLA basketball is still about the heart of L.A.

It’s about Southern California kids playing Southern California basketball.

It’s about fathers and sons in Compton, teachers and kids in Woodland Hills, wooden backboards and stuffy gyms from Rancho Park to Rancho Cucamonga.

Every Bruins team has players from out of town, even out of the country, but every team always seemed centered around the kids from L.A.

It’s what makes one of basketball’s most hyped stories feel so homey. It’s what makes them a story that touches not only school kids in Westwood, but parts of all of us.

This season, one of those L.A. kids is Russell Westbrook, a guard who has made but five baskets in two tournament games.

After Saturday’s victory over Texas A&M;, he quietly vowed to road roommate Kevin Love that he would be better.

Then, on Easter Sunday, he returned to his city roots and the man who helped him grow there.

“So, Dad, we going to shoot?” he said.

His father, initially stunned, just shook his head and smiled.

Of course they would shoot.

Every since Westbrook was 7 years old, his father has dropped everything to shoot.

“Tomorrow is not promised to any parent and child,” Big Russell said. “You have to grab whatever time you can get with your children, whenever you can get it.”

The father, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, pulled himself off his couch and grabbed a ball and summoned the son to the car.

They drove to a nearby drugstore to buy some water. Then they drove around the corner to Rowley Park off 132nd Street to shoot.

Yeah, with the echoes of 17,000 screaming fans at the Anaheim Honda Center still ringing in his ears, Russell Westbrook was going to practice at a playground.

“Well, I didn’t want him shooting on cement, so we had to go inside,” Big Russell said.

But how would they get inside a closed gym on a holiday?

“We know somebody with a key,” Big Russell said with a laugh.

They sneaked into the suffocating gym, opened a door on to the bright Sunday skies, and began to work.

Little Russell would shoot. Big Russell would rebound.

Little Russell would sweat. Big Russell would sweat more.

Going through their usual routine, Little Russell began with layups and worked his way back to three-pointers.

He had to make three consecutive shots at each stop before being allowed to move to the next stop.

He had to shoot 50 free throws at the end of the workout.

He was allowed two dunks.

And he had to do it with no music, no clapping, nothing other than the constant patter of a father’s inspiration.

“We can’t have music because that way, he couldn’t hear me,” said Big Russell, 41, who works at an airplane parts plant.

For more than two hours in this stuffy gym, Little Russell shot and Big Russell shared.

Elbows up! Extend your fingertips! Jump!

Oh, and then there was this.

How’s the girl situation?

“Yeah, we talk about everything there,” Big Russell said. “My son holds a lot inside, and this is our way of getting everything out.”

While being anointed as the Bruins’ breakout player this season, the sophomore Westbrook remains one of their most closed-up players.

He doesn’t say much to the media and, in fact, was sitting alone for 10 minutes during Wednesday’s interview session before I approached him.

He will be needed for his defense tonight against the quick and strong backcourt of Western Kentucky in the regional semifinals here.

But he wants to give more. After losing in the last two Final Fours, none of these Bruins thinks just winning is enough.

“I’m here to produce, that’s all I can say,” Westbrook said.

At some point during Little Russell’s 800 shots on Easter Sunday, Big Russell couldn’t help himself.

Shouted the father: “You’re in the Sweet 16 now, this is when it really gets tough.”

Replied the son: “That’s why we’re here.”

By then, crowded around the open door, several kids had gathered to watch, but none of them dare stepped inside, respectful of an ancient connection that has led to renewed tradition, hot March, madness in the city.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.