Russell Westbrook’s first season with the Los Angeles Lakers was nothing like he expected. The Purple and Gold had to deal with injuries and struggles to make Russ and LeBron James work together, ultimately losing the play-in tournament, and recording a terrible season.
All these underwhelming performances earned the Lakers a lot of criticism, with Westbrook getting the most and harshest ones. Now, the fanbase wants the player out of the roster, while rooting for Kyrie Irving to land at Crypto.com Arena before the start of the 2022/23 NBA season.
While most people have criticized Westbrook, others have defended him, reminding people that they’re talking about a terrific player who can do great things on the court. The most recent person to defend Russ is four-time NBA champion Andre Iguodala, who called out the media for creating drama around players, citing Westbrook as a prime sample.
“Another person that has fell into this is Russell Westbrook,” Iguodala said on his Point Forward podcast. “This is the same conversation. Any and every Russ trade has been leaked and he still hasn’t been traded. It’s become, people starting to mocking Russ, you even got young kids in the league who are disrespecting by his name. It’s probably not on purpose like that’s just how it came up, because we just accepted the way the media speaks and throws shots at our players.”
Recently, one San Antonio Spurs rookie mocked Westbrook with the long-running ‘Westbrick’ joke, which made the rounds around the league. The player would apologize after that, but it shows that right now, not many people respect Westbrook.
Even though he didn’t play at the highest level this season, Russ deserves better from fans. This season could be one of redemption for him, as new head coach Darvin Ham has vowed to make him a better player for the Lakers. It remains to be seen if he can achieve that, but as things stand right now, nobody wants Westbrook.
