Training camps in the NBA are in full swing, but Russell Westbrook still finds himself without a team. Westbrook is the biggest name still on the market, and his former teammate, Kendrick Perkins, spoke about why he remains unsigned on the Road Trippin’ podcast.
“Do we realize that training camp started, and Russell Westbrook is not on the roster?” Perkins asked.
When co-host Richard Jefferson suggested it might be by choice, Perkins made it clear it wasn’t.
“This very situation, this moment right here that we’re in, Russell Westbrook not being on the roster, is what hurt me and Russell Westbrook personal relationship,” Perkins said. “Sometime three, four years ago, when he was on the Lakers roster and reports came back to me from general managers around the league, and I said it on television, that ‘Hey man, Russ got to be careful now… Word around the league is that if he don’t be careful, temper it down, he might find himself out of the league.'”
Westbrook’s stint with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2021 to 2023 proved to be a total disaster. The nine-time All-Star wasn’t a good fit next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the court, and there was a lot of chatter about his behavior off it as well.
After Westbrook was traded to the Utah Jazz in February 2023, he was labeled a vampire in the Lakers locker room. That didn’t go down too well with his wife, Nina, who went off on ESPN and insider Dave McMenamin over that report.
The Jazz later waived Westbrook, and he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. The 36-year-old would spend a season and a half with the Clippers, and while the stint started well, it didn’t end that way.
Westbrook then made his way to the Denver Nuggets in 2024 and had an up-and-down 2024-25 campaign. There were again seemingly some locker room issues, with a Nuggets player calling him immature.
Westbrook, who averaged 13.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2024-25, then chose to decline his $3.4 million player option with the Nuggets for 2025-26 to hit free agency. You wonder if he had imagined he would remain unsigned in October.
The Sacramento Kings were the only team Westbrook was somewhat strongly linked to, but things have gone a bit quiet on that front lately. You do start to wonder if this really is the end.
Kendrick Perkins’s Warning To Russell Westbrook Ruined Their Relationship
Perkins mentioned there how his past comments led to the relationship with Westbrook falling apart. He could well be referring to the time when he sent a warning to his former teammate on First Take back in 2022.
Perkins had stated that Westbrook’s behavior was becoming cancerous for the Lakers. He also pointed out how the former MVP was moping on the bench and wanted him to change his attitude and accept that he was no longer the top player he once was. Perkins made it clear that if Westbrook wasn’t careful, he’d be out of the NBA in a year.
Well, Nina wasn’t too happy to hear all that and made her feelings known to Perkins.
“I get a long paragraph from his wife, Nina,” Perkins stated. “She reads me her rights, or thought she did, ‘I thought you would never turn your back….’ After that our relationship was over with. Because then my wife get involved. They go back and forth because I ain’t doing nothing but doing my job.”
Perkins has burned plenty of bridges since he joined ESPN as an analyst. He also doesn’t get along too well with another former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, Kevin Durant. None of it is going to stop Perkins from speaking his mind, though.
