Russell Westbrook received a lot of criticism during the 2021/22 NBA season for his performances on the Los Angeles Lakers. The former NBA MVP never lived up to the expectations, as he couldn’t display all his game and become the player that helped the Washington Wizards last campaign.
His fit with LeBron James wasn’t good and the team suffered from that whenever they played together. Now that the season is over, Westbrook had the chance to reflect on it, saying that he was never allowed to be himself, even though Anthony Davis and LeBron James repeatedly stated that during the season.
Westbrook’s final press conference of the season raised a lot of eyebrows around the league. He talked about his teammates, former head coach, and the way they tried to use him. While many people called him out for his words, Richard Jefferson came in Russ’ defense, claiming that he was asked to do something he hadn’t done before, only to get blasted when things didn’t go as planned.
During a recent edition of ESPN’s NBA Today, Jefferson had this to say:
“This is the thing. When I see Russ talk in that moment, I still see professionalism. Because he’s not coming out here and blasting Coach Vogel. He said, ‘I don’t know what Coach Vogel’s problem was with me.’ It could have been your shooting percentage in the fourth quarter, but then, on his side, he was like, ‘I wasn’t put in the best position.’ All the people that said they want Russ to be Russ, ‘I need to have the ball in my hands 95% of the time, and I need to run the offense. I need to make some mistakes, but I also need some positives to come with those mistakes.’ He just wasn’t in that position. Everyone knew that going into, Russ knew that going into, so the fact that we ask Russ to do something he’s never done in his Hall-of-Fame career, and then criticize him for not being able to do something he’s never done in his Hall-of-Fame career, I think that shows the disarray from the front office that shows there was a lot more tension from the team and inside that shown…”
It seems like Russ took all the blame for this awful season. The Lakers weren’t able to get things going during the campaign, no matter who was on the court, they just couldn’t do it. Some say injuries played a big role in that, and that’s true, but this team was old and the pieces they have couldn’t do anything to change their reality.
They simply built a bad squad, put together two players that need the ball in their hands for a lot of time to be effective, and it seems like nobody saw the problem that could be. Well, now it’s time to fix this disaster. They have a lot of work to do, and some think they will deal Westbrook somewhere else this offseason. We have to wait and see how this saga plays out, but it’s good to see that not everything is slander for Westbrook.
