Russell Westbrook has been the biggest story in Lakerland this season, and it has been for all the wrong reasons. His subpar play has undoubtedly hurt the team’s performance this season, and fans have been touching him for weeks.
Naturally, Russ and his teammate shave tried to quell all the noise, but it seems fan anger and frustration only grows after every game.
Following Saturday’s blowout loss to Denver, things got intense on social media and Laker Nation was able to lure Westbrook’s younger brother, Raynard, into a debate on the platform.
Unsurprisingly, Ray aggressively defended his brother in a rant that is now going viral. Here’s what he said:
“This is the thing. Y’all think y’all know what’s going on with people here, but y’all don’t. Y’all wanna talk about – there never been an article about Russell and what goes on behind closed doors. Listen bro listen, I’m not disagreeing with you, I never disagreed with nobody, but my thing is this. I’m not gonna let anybody come around here and just try to slander my brother. That’s not what’s gonna happen. And I don’t care who it is, that’s not gonna happen.”
Ray Westbrook appeared in a Lakers Spaces to discuss Russell Westbrooks play. He was met with some pushback (Part 1) pic.twitter.com/92oTTkWR66
— Raquel 🫶🏾 (@SOULbeautifulme) January 16, 2022
(Part 2) of Westbrooks brother speaking
Sorry I was typing cause it was insane pic.twitter.com/7LnbZQ2ez3
— Raquel 🫶🏾 (@SOULbeautifulme) January 16, 2022
Naturally, things will not change for Westbrook unless the Lakers start stringing together some wins. That will prove a challenging affair, but Westbrook is willing to sacrifice his own game in order to get his squad on the right track.
“We’re all trying to figure it out as a team, as a unit, to be able to say, ‘Ok, how can we figure this out?’” Westbrook said in our chat. “And I know I’m the one who has got to make the biggest sacrifice — and I understand that — so I’ve got to be able to figure out a way to be able to make the best out of it and make the best for this team and that’s it.”
So far, Russ has been an easy scapegoat and many fans have already given up on trying to make things work with him in the lineup.
But the struggles of Westbrook are far from the only thing troubling the 17x Champs. With LeBron Jame showing his age and inconsistent play coming from every player, it might take a full-blown rebuild to make the Lakers a contending team again.
The trade deadline is just weeks away now, and Rob Pelinka will be hard at work implementing his new plan. All the while, Ray Westbrook will continue to fend off the haters.
