Following Friday night’s defeat against the L.A. Clippers, a clearly frustrated Russell Westbrook made headlines in his post-game chat with the media.
After one reporter mentioned his expectations for the season, the 1x MVP called him out in front of everyone.
“What did I envision? Is the season over? Is the season over? No? Thank you. What did you envision? Since you spoke for me, I want to know what you envisioned,” Westbrook said. “You still haven’t answered my question. What did I envision? I want to know what you think my vision is. I have no expectations, that’s why you don’t know what I envision. The last 4 years I’ve been on 4 different teams. My vision of thinking everything is gonna be peaches and cream, that’s not realistic, that’s not life. So I come into every situation, start from ground zero and figure out along the way. I have no expectations of how things will work. I just try to find ways to best help my teammates and that’s about it.”
Unfortunately for Russ, nobody is buying his narrative.
Amid a tough season, for both him and his team, it’s understandable why he’d show frustration. But it’s hard to believe he entered Los Angeles with no expectations, especially playing alongside LeBron James.
Following Westbrook’s outburst, Stephen A. Smith chimed in with a rather harsh review of the star point guard.
“When I saw Russell Westbrook say what he said… listen he’s had a bad season, we all get that. But he’s still Russell Westbrook and a lot of time people have unfairly attacked his character throughout the year because I find him to be somebody who strives to be selfless. He’s not somebody who doesn’t care, he’s never cheated us with effort.
But when I watched him in the post-game press conference last night, that was the first time that I looked at him and said ‘he doe snot deserve to be a Laker.’ I have never heard any member of the Los Angeles Lakers in my quarter-century plus of covering the sport say ‘I had no expectations.’ First of all, wearing the Purple and Gold brings expectation. They got 17 titles.”
Needless to say, the situation is getting out of hand for the Lakers. Russell Westbrook is becoming unhinged, Anthony Davis continues to be unreliable, and LeBron James has proven, so far, to be incapable of carrying his team to victory.
Worse still is that there is no clear resolution to the crisis. It’s going to be tough for Rob Pelinka to make any meaningful trades and the core players are still under contract for another year.
The Lakers really have no choice but to work with what they have and hope for better days ahead.
