It has not been an easy season for Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook had a troubled season where he ended up taking a lot of the blame for the Lakers’ failure to make the Playoffs due to his sub-par and inconsistent performances. The most consistent highlights of his season were clips of Russ air balling shots, giving him the not-so-affectionate nickname of ‘Westbrick’.
The memes around calling Russ ‘Westbrick’ grew out of hand very quickly and the guard himself had to address the nickname to the media and request people to not disrespect his family name. Well, disrespect can come from even trusted sources.
Adrian Wojnarowski was a part of the ESPN broadcast for Warriors-Celtics Game 3 and was talking about the Lakers. As he was talking, he very clearly said ‘Westbrick’ while referring to Russell Westbrook. Internet trolls using that name is one thing and one of the most respected journalists slipping up and using that name is a whole other thing.
WOJ really said Russell Westbrick on live TV 😭pic.twitter.com/5B9h0jkv0n
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) June 9, 2022
The simplest solution is for Westbrook to simply not airball as many shots. It’s not just the airballs but also the degree of difficulty on some of the shots, as Russ ends up making it harder for himself to make good shots with random pull-up mid-range jumpers.
More than anything else, confidence could have been the biggest factor. Russ lacked the same mojo and passion from previous stints as he was clearly struggling to adapt to Frank Vogel’s system, with the coach also not being able to figure out how to maximize Westbrook alongside LeBron James and the supporting cast.
Hopefully, Darvin Ham comes up with some innovative ideas that put Westbrook and the Lakers back into a position to succeed. Wins will take away the disrespect that Russ has faced, or at least give him the redemption that he wants.
