The Sacramento Kings dropped to 8-24 in this 2025-26 NBA season after a 125-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. Kings guard Russell Westbrook would have been frustrated to be on the receiving end of a blowout loss, and a fan appeared to add to those frustrations in the closing stages of the contest.
Westbrook and an individual sitting courtside got into a rather tense exchange during a coach’s challenge with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter. As tends to be the case in these situations, the fan was promptly ejected.
A Laker fan was ejected for calling Russ “Westbrick” 😬 pic.twitter.com/B4lbzgUNuk
— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) December 29, 2025
You can’t make out what was being said there, but it’s claimed that this individual called the future Hall of Famer “Westbrick.” While that might seem like a harmless nickname to you, that’s not how he sees it. Westbrook has stated he won’t allow people to disrespect him by calling him Westbrick.
“When it comes to basketball, I don’t mind the criticism of missing and making shots,” Westbrook stated. “But the moment it becomes where my name is getting shamed, it becomes an issue. I’ve kind of let it go in the past because it never really bothered me. It really kinda hit me the other day.
“Me and wife was at the teacher-parent conference for my son,” Westbrook continued. “And the teacher told me, she’s like, Noah, he 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,” Westbrook added.
Unfortunately for Westbrook, his statements have fallen on deaf ears. Fans have continued to taunt him with that nickname over the years, and they haven’t stopped even after seeing that he will get confrontational over it.
As for this game, Westbrook had 13 points (6-17 FG), five rebounds, four assists, and two steals against the Lakers. You’d imagine he’d have loved to pile on more misery on his former team, who had lost three in a row coming into this one, but it wasn’t to be. He has now instead lost three in a row to the Lakers.
Westbrook was in much happier spirits just a day ago. He had surpassed Magic Johnson for seventh place on the all-time assists list in the 113-107 win against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday and had also become just the 14th player ever to record 2,000 steals.
Westbrook did actually climb upward on another list here against the Lakers. He passed Dominique Wilkins to get to 16th on the all-time scoring charts. Westbrook now has 26,672 points to his name and should get into the top 15 soon, as Oscar Robertson isn’t too far away from him with 26,710 points.
We’ll see Westbrook in action next when the Kings take on the Los Angeles Clippers, another former team of his, at the Intuit Dome on Tuesday at 11 PM ET.
