Russell Westbrook let his emotions get the best of him during the Thunder-Grizzlies game. (TNT)

Before we all gang up on Russell Westbrook for throwing a tantrum on the bench during the Thunder-Grizzlies game on TNT Thursday night, let’s listen to the responses of his coaches and teammates.

Kevin Durant said was just a disagreement. ”This is the game of basketball,” Durant told the Associated Press. “You have so many different emotions on one team. You’re going to have disagreements. It wasn’t the first. It’s not going to be the last. ‘You’ve just got to know how to respond to each other. I think we always do a great job of that.”

Thunder coach Scott Brooks chimed in and said he took Westbrook out of the game after his blowup and then once his All-Star point guard calmed down he returned to the court without any incidents and order was restored.

“It was nothing,” Brooks told AP. “He just had to regroup. … It was nothing that has not happened before – not just with him, with all of our guys.”

The outburst occurred in the third quarter with OKC ahead of Memphis by double digits. Westbrook started sniping with his teammates after a possession when he posted up along the left side of the lane and eventually got called for a turnover when Jerryd Bayless stuck with him on defense for 5 seconds.

Westbrook then spiked the ball and appeared to be gesturing toward teammates Thabo Sefolosha and Durant that they needed to get open. He then hollered toward coach Scott Brooks on the bench and refused to join the huddle during a timeout. Cameras caught Westbrook screaming at assistant coach Maurice Cheeks and was seen slamming one of the chairs at the end of the bench. He walked off to the tunnel and when he returned he had a towel over his head.

Westbrook described it as ”just a little miscommunication.” Brooks said it was an offensive play that went awry. Sefolosha acted as though nothing happened. Obviously something happened because it took a few minutes before the highly combustible Westbrook could compose himself.

TNT reporter Craig Sager asked Westbrook if needs to control his temper more, and Westbrook responded with, “I control it like a man.” Sager followed with “do you put it behind you and go ahead and win?” Westbrook gave him a terse: “If that’s what you say, bro.”

The best part of the TNT clip was the way Charles Barkley explained why Westbrook was so mad. Barkley said: “I think I know what happened. When he left home this morning, and it was dark, and he realized at halftime that he would have to put that shirt on.”

Whether it’s his loud shirts or his loud screams after dunks, Westbrook is fueled by his emotions. Perhaps no player in the league depends on raw emotion more so than Westbrook. His passion and energy is what makes him one of the best players in the game. Now, what he did on the bench was unacceptable, but he’ll learn to deal with that better as he matures. He’s just 24 years old.

Westbrook is like that wild thoroughbred in the stable. You don’t want to fence him in. Let him roam free so he can run wild and wreak havoc. Let him be himself and let him figure things out on his own. He’s a smart, deeply religious guy who has never had any major off-the-court issues. He cares deeply about winning, so why curb his enthusiasm.

It was a mini-implosion no question by the defending Western Conference champions right in the public eye. But when disputes arise, Durant said the Thunder know how to ”talk it out and don’t let it simmer for a long time.”

Just like what Durant said, it won’t be the last time Westbrook will have a meltdown. The Thunder have seen this movie before and they know how it ends.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastbreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

NBA commissioner David Stern has canceled games through Dec. 15. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story on the economic impact of the NBA lockout to the networks and advertisers. The amount of money lost had the 2011-12 season been canceled is astronomical. Money is the main reason why there was a lockout in the first place, but money was also the reason why the league and its players now have a tentative agreement in place that would end the labor strife.

Simply put, NBA commissioner David Stern and the Labor Relations Committee did not want to stretch the lockout beyond Christmas Day or late January. All those so-called NBA experts who were saying “the sky is falling” and “the season is lost” should have taken a closer look at this bit of information before they made their doom-and-gloom forecasts:

— The NBA lockout greatly affects Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Sports, who pay the league $930 million per season to air games. Advertisers spent $807 million on NBA games that aired on cable and network TV last season, according to Kantar Media, an ad-tracking unit of WPP PLC.

— Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the New York Knicks, in a November public filing said if canceled games aren’t rescheduled, the company’s financial results would see a “material negative effect.” The Knicks are unveiling the first phase of their $850 million renovation this year and planned to raise ticket prices 49% in the lower seating section.

Stern and the owners threatened to kill the season but, in reality, the bottom line is this: the majority of the league’s owners did not want to wipe out the entire season. The Heat’s Micky Arison didn’t want to cancel the season, the Lakers’ Jerry Buss didn’t want to cancel the season and the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban didn’t want to cancel the season.

Now, there is a small faction of hardliners, led by Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who didn’t mind missing games. But those same small-market owners also said they were holding out because they wanted more competitive balance, and they didn’t want another LeBron James-type episode where a player can hold a team hostage while he considers his free-agency options.

The players are willing to split the basketball-related income at 50-50. In return, all they want is to tweak the system to allow room for player movement. That’s all!

Union executive director Billy Hunter said weeks ago that the collective bargaining agreement was at the 2-yard line and a deal was on the table if the owners just loosened up some of their demands. Stern canceled games through Dec. 15, but purposely left the all-important Christmas Day schedule on the table. Why? Because ABC and ESPN have large stakes in this day and Stern does not want to disappoint his TV partners.

It’s all about the money. Always has, always will. There is way too much money at stake for the league to simply press the red button and nuke the entire season.

Mike Fratello coaches the Ukrainian men's basketball team in EuroBasket 2011. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Mike Fratello is taking time off from his role as The Czar of the Telestrator on TV in order to fulfill his obligation as coach of Ukraine’s men’s national team.

Fratello, 64, dusts off his coaching clipboard at the 2011 European Championship, which started Aug. 31 in Lithuania and runs through Sept. 18. The Ukrainian Basketball Federation reached an agreement with the former Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies coach earlier this year, a stunning move considering Fratello hasn’t coached since 2007.

But once a coach is always a coach. Kind of like riding a bike, and The Czar should be able to make the adjustment. Besides, there’s absolutely no pressure on Fratello because Ukraine is not expected to medal at EuroBasket 2011.

The idea of Fratello becoming Ukraine’s coach was rooted all the way back during Fratello’s days with the Hawks when he coached Alexander Volkov (then a player on Russian’s national team). Volkov is now the head of Ukraine’s basketball federation and he reached out to his former coach to fill in an all important role for his country’s basketball program.

“He called me up one day and said he needed me to coach his team,” Fratello said on NBA TV back in July. “We kept talking and talking, and somewhere along the way I thought this would be an interesting challenge so I took the opportunity.”

Fratello added that it was a risky move for him because it’s tackling on a new culture and vastly different philosophy from a basketball standpoint. “What worked in the NBA may not work here,” he said. “We may not have the talent [or the athleticism of the NBA], but it’s a much more physical game over here. Very physical. They pass and cut so much harder, and much more ball movement. And you have guys who can make shots. The skill level is much higher than what you thought it would be.”

As for the language barrier? “I made sure to repeat to [the players], if you don’t understand me make sure you let me know and we’ll either say it differently or use one of the assistant coaches or one of the people around us everyday in the gym to break it down or repeat it over again,” Fratello said. “But most of them have done a pretty good job in understanding my language and what I’m trying to say from a basketball standpoint.

“It has been very difficult. You have to simplify things.”

Two players Fratello won’t have to worry about in terms of communication are center Kyrylo Fesenko and point guard Stiven Bertt. Fesenko plays for the Utah Jazz and Bertt is a point guard from New York.

Ukraine is in Group D with Slovenia, Russia, Belgium, Bulgaria and Georgia. Russia, led by Andrei Kirilenko, and Slovenia, led by Goran Dragic, are the top two teams in Group D.