It was hard to miss Russell Westbrook during New York Fashion Week, and not just because the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard stands 6-foot-3 and weighs around 185 pounds.
There he was last Friday, in the front row at the Rag & Bone show — in a blue-print, long-sleeve shirt, olive trousers cuffed into capris and a felt bowler hat — as paparazzi swarmed around him and his seatmate, Anna Wintour.
There he was again Saturday night, among the early arrivals at Altuzarra, dressed in a print T-shirt and overalls, and chatting with Vogue editors (he was once again a guest of Ms. Wintour) and other members of the press while waiting for the scheduled 8 p.m. show to finally begin.
On Sunday, he showed up at Opening Ceremony (in black shorts and a black T-shirt) and, perhaps having learned by now that no fashion show starts anywhere near its announced time, waited in his parked S.U.V. until seconds before the first model came out and then dashed to his seat across the room from Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Rashida Jones. Later that night he was at a dinner party at Haven’s Kitchen for Thakoon along with the actress Christina Ricci, and the next day he was again in the front row, this time at the show by the up-and-coming men’s wear designer, Tim Coppens.
“The shows, as an experience, have been amazing,” Mr. Westbrook, 24, said of his Fashion Week whirlwind. He added that he found that stepping out of the usual basketball scene and meeting designers “was refreshing.”
Mr. Westbrook’s presence as a front-row regular may have caught some of the other Fashion Week attendees by surprise, but the player believes he belongs among their ranks. When he arrived in the N.B.A., in 2008, Mr. Westbrook said that, clothing-wise, “nobody was doing anything that would attract the fashion crowd.” (Well-dressed league veterans like Dwyane Wade, Tyson Chandler and Amar’e Stoudemire might disagree.)
“People got on the podium in whatever they were wearing that day,” he said. If some players were more presentable in tailored separates “it was cliché,” he added, noting that though many other players employ stylists, he chooses pieces on his own because, akin to being a point guard, he likes control. “They were wearing the same suits,” he said. Looking “ ‘business casual,’ is what the N.B.A. calls it.”
But it wasn’t until the 2012 playoffs, when Mr. Westbrook chose a dizzying succession of unconventional prints, that he appeared on the fashion radar. To wit: a Lacoste polo printed with fishing lures; a Joyrich paint-splattered short-sleeve shirt; a Comme des Garçons shirt, leopard-and-dotted button-down; and a Shirts For All My Friends red geometric print top. Often the looks were punctuated by a pair of red “nerd” frames (a nod to Clark Kent, Mr. Westbrook said), which he wears lensless. (The glasses later became
a plotline in an ESPN commercial starring Mr. Westbrook and Jeff Van Gundy, one of the network’s basketball announcers.)
dude walking around looking like he let his mama cut his hair in kitchen with the trash bags covering the ground, cause daddy wasn't there 
