Russell Westbrook is one of the most polarizing players in the league. There’s no doubt that his high-usage playstyle causes a lot of controversy among fans and analysts alike.
In recent memory, Russell Westbrook has received a lot of hate from Lakers fans amidst the team’s poor performances. Westbrook has even had to speak out against getting called the nickname “Westbrick”, claiming that he feels as though the nickname is “shaming”.
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.”
It seems as though the heckling that Russell Westbrook receives comes from not only off-court sources but also from opposing players. There was a notable moment in the recent Lakers-Timberwolves where Patrick Beverley and Karl-Anthony Towns mocked him for shooting an airball from 3PT range.
The amount of trash talk towards Russell Westbrook and the Lakers shocked analyst Zach Lowe, who claimed that he has never seen a player of Russell Westbrook’s level “endure so much targeted humiliation” from an opponent on an episode of his recent podcast, the Lowe Post.
I’m still reeling from how much s*it they talked at the Lakers expense. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player of Russell Westbrook’s calibre endure so much targeted humiliation at one game from opponent as he did in Minnesota at last night with Pat Bev holding his nose and calling him trash, with Karl-Anthony Towns spending like 9 seconds pantomiming searching for a breeze or some other reason Russ airballed the jumper. It wasn’t a quick pantomime, sometimes you see players duck and cover on the bench for a second. Karl Towns went in a full on SNL routine at Russ’ expense.
There is no doubt that there’s some history between Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, which could perhaps be the reason for the savage trolling that Russell Westbrook received. Hopefully, Russell Westbrook improves his play and silences his haters in the future.
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently not in a good position, as they are a play-in tier team that has a chance to miss the tournament itself if they keep losing. Hopefully, they have a strong finish to the season, with better overall play from the whole team.
