Russell Westbrook has been heavily criticized by a lot of different analysts and fans for his play with the Los Angeles Lakers this season. While Russell Westbrook does bring positives to the basketball court, he is also an inefficient scorer who is also turnover-prone.
Recently, Russell Westbrook has spoken out against the use of the nickname “Westbrick” when it comes to him and stated that he’d no longer tolerate its use. He claimed that he now considers the nickname “shaming”.
“It really hit me the other day. Me and wife were at the teacher-parent conference for my son. And the teacher told me, Noah is so proud of his last name, he writes it everywhere, he tells everyone ‘I’m Westbrook’… I kind of sat there in shock and it hit me. I can’t no longer allow people, for example, Westbrick to me is now shaming, shaming my name and my legacy for my kid. It’s a name that means more to me, my wife, my mom, my dad, the ones that paved the way for me.”
“That’s just one example myself and my wife where its not great and I think a lot of times, I let it slide, but now its time to put a stop to that, and put it on notice, there’s a difference. Every time I hear it now, I will make sure I address it and nip that in the bud… It’s very unfortunate, it’s been like this for my entire career. I’ve been blessed and super thankful for the ones around me and the ones that support me but it’s really the shaming of my name, the shaming of my character, the shaming of who am I as a person, is to me, not warranted. I haven’t done anything to anyone, I haven’t hurt anyone. I’ve done nothing but play basketball a way that people may not like. And this is just a game. This not my entire life. I think that is the ultimate thing that’s been for me…”
Analyst Shannon Sharpe has recently claimed that he feels “zero” sympathy for Russell Westbrook regarding the nickname. He pointed out that it’s not as if fans were using slurs to target him, and claimed that he was getting called “Westbrick” because “it seems like everything he shoots is a brick”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXU7f8kwIf4
“Zero [sympathy]. Play better. They didn’t call him boy. They didn’t call him a monkey… They called him Westbrick, because it seems like everything that he shoots is a brick.”
While it is fair to say that someone shouldn’t be subjected to taunts that they don’t appreciate, Shannon Sharpe is correct in suggesting that playing better would stop a lot of the noise from Los Angeles Lakers fans.
Hopefully, we see Russell Westbrook quiet his haters. There’s no doubt that he can still help a team with certain aspects of his skillset. Hopefully, we see the hate die down in the coming weeks, as some of the criticism he has received is extremely over the top.
