Russell Westbrook’s recent performances for the Lakers have made a growing sense of dislike for him from the fanbase snowball into something much bigger. Fans are hoping for a trade or a dramatic turnaround from Russ to save this Lakers season, which has already started out 0-3 with Westbrook putting in poor performances in the first 2 games, before following up with an equally bad one against the Portland Trail Blazers.
During the ‘Late Night Lake Show’ fan spaces on Twitter, someone went on an impassioned rant targeting Westbrook for his extremely poor mid-range attempt with 15 seconds left on the clock, which caused them to fall to a Jerami Grant game-winner.
— Late Night Lake Show (@LateNightLakers) October 23, 2022
“Where the vets at? I need Jared Dudley on this guy’s ass right now. I want Rondo on this guy’s ass right now. I ain’t with all that lip-putting stuff, that’s why Coach Ham put your ass on the side. You ain’t getting back on defense? If you don’t wanna get back, take a game off. If you feel that tired, take a game off. I need you to get back, let’s start this. No. 2, you Westbrook fans, I ain’t forget about you. Who thought it was right to bring him back into the game? Who the f**k on that bench thought it was smart to bring Russell Westbrook back into the game? Austin Reaves was hooping, Troy Brown was hoping, and Juan-Toscano was doing the right things on the dirty work. They’re playing defense and making shots, Patrick Beverley looked better than Russ in this bi**h. And Russ came back and think he gonna hit the game-winner? You think you’ll hit a middie? Get the f**k out of here. What made you think you’re gonna hit the middie now? What made Coach Ham think you’re gonna come play defense when we need you now? (Source: Streamable)
A tiger doesn’t change his stripes, and this fan is absolutely correct. Westbrook has shown what he contributes to the Lakers in the current set-up. Expecting Russ to be any different is not smart, as we have seen him have more performances like this in LA than otherwise.
Are Fans Being Too Harsh?
The fan interactions that Westbrook has been having recently proved that this fanbase would rather move on from Russ than keep plodding along on this experimental lineup for another full season. It didn’t work last year and it clearly won’t be working this year either.
Fans tend to be extremely critical and demand change at the first sign of trouble. However, with Russ, the fanbase has seen the same issues plague their team over and over again. This isn’t healthy for them, it isn’t healthy for the team, and it surely isn’t healthy for Russ himself.
Fans in big markets are usually the harshest critics and Russ has learned that about the Lakers. This tenure for his home team has turned quite ugly for him and everyone should hope that his reputation isn’t eternally damaged because of his Lakers’ career.
