Russell Westbrook had a season to forget for the Los Angeles Lakers. Not only did he receive extreme amounts of criticism for his performances, but Russ himself also regressed greatly, with his stats falling substantially in every major category. The fit didn’t seem quite right, and he suggested that Frank Vogel may have had some issue with him. He also went on to suggest that he wasn’t allowed to be himself.
Westbrook’s arrival was heralded as the start of a Big 3 and the Lakers were expected to do great things, but the narrative turned quickly, with the man himself feeling like he wasn’t given a fair shot. He said as much, as reported by Southern California News Group reporter Kyle Goon.
Russell Westbrook said "top to bottom" on coming to L.A.: I just felt like I was never given a fair chance to be who I needed to be to help this team.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) April 11, 2022
“I just felt like I was never given a fair chance to be who I needed to be to help this team.”
While there might be some truth to Westbrook’s statement, and his level of influence on teams has tended to be higher, there can be no denying that he was just plain bad during a lot of games. Westbrook shot very inefficiently while also leading the league in turnovers, which happened when he had the ball in his hands. And a Lakers fan on Twitter took exception to his statement about not getting a fair chance by compiling a video of his errors that went viral.
Russ: “I wasn’t given a fair chance with the Lakers”
also Russ: pic.twitter.com/b7egvPwlUh
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) April 11, 2022
Two things can obviously be true, the fit clearly didn’t work very well with Russ, and he did also play poorly when given the chance to shine. The relationship between him and fans of the franchise has been pretty toxic all season though, so it’s no surprise to see reactions like these. All of this will undoubtedly be taken into account when the Lakers evaluate whether to move on from Westbrook or not, but at this point, it’s difficult to see how he would simply get back to being a superstar next season.
