Russell Westbrook has been struggling ever since he joined the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook in the offseason to form a big three with Russ, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis. But that has not worked out, and Westbrook is having one of the worst seasons of his career in terms of his performances.
Damian Lillard recently gave some advice and spoke about Russell Westbrook and the tough season he has been having. He told Russ to just face the tough situation and criticism head-on, but also noted that Westbrook’s legacy is secure and he has nothing to prove. Lillard spoke quite positively about Russell Westbrook and said that Westbrook’s accomplishments can never be undermined (32:29 onwards).
“If I had to tell him (Westbrook) anything, I would just tell him face the music with it,. The criticism, it’s going to happen and you’re playing in one of the biggest markets, so I would just face it. Whatever the questions y’all ask me, whether I think it’s a dumb question or something that is self-explanatory or whatever, just face it and deal with it.”
“Russell Westbrook’s career and legacy is undeniable,” Lillard says. “That’s just the bottom line. The player, the career he’s had, what he’s accomplished, the things that he’s done, nobody else has been able to do it. With all these triple-doubles – I don’t care if you stat chasing or whatever people wanna say. If I try to go every game and get a triple-double for a whole season, I can’t do it. And there’s a lot of other people that can’t do it either. That’s hard in itself to actually do it, whether you’re trying to, to do it or not.”
“It’s easy to, to kick somebody when they’re down and all that,” Lillard says. “But if I had to tell him something, I would just face it and just deal with it. But I do think it’s gone to the extreme, as far as it’s almost like people see something that they think everybody’s going agree with if they just talk shit about Russell Westbrook. So everybody’s just throwing they stuff at ’em and saying, you know, it’s going overboard at this point, in my opinion, like it is just crazy to me.”
Lillard can clearly sympathize with Russell Westbrook, as he has also faced his fair share of criticism over the last year, although the criticism aimed at him is for different reasons. But as someone who is also from California, Lillard knows and understands the pressure that Westbrook must be dealing with trying to play for his hometown team and underperforming.
Westbrook and the Lakers have an important game tonight when they take on the Dallas Mavericks. If the Lakers lose this game, they will fall to the 11th seed in the Western Conference, effectively losing a spot in the play-in tournament. Given how tough the Lakers’ season has been, they can not afford to lose this game.
