You’re not going to be best friends with every person that you come across when playing sports, particularly NBA basketball. Some teammates just don’t mesh well, but for the betterment of the team, you put differences aside and get the job done on the court as everyone has the same goal, which is to win.
For the Los Angeles Lakers, a few relationships could use some mending. Their Big 3 of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook did not click last season. The injuries suffered by James and Davis certainly didn’t help, but Westbrook did himself no favors with his performance and how he sometimes carried himself.
During his exit interview, Westbrook provided many quotes that could be categorized as cringey. He placed a lot of blame on others for how the season went, taking very little responsibility for how poorly things went. Los Angeles went 33-49, not even qualifying for the NBA Play-In Tournament.
There have been a ton of rumors this offseason about what could happen with Westbrook as the team has been actively looking to trade him. That isn’t an easy task to accomplish as his value is tanked across the league. This would be the fourth time in four years he would be on the move and his fifth team in five seasons.
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With an ice-cold market, the Lakers have to be prepared to have him on the roster this upcoming season. If that occurs, some damage control would have to be done between he and James, who don’t seem to have the greatest of relationships currently.
“I had been told to watch that dynamic between the two and see how it plays out, that if Russell Westbrook stays on this team, how it’s going to be. And it had been described to me as – I asked, is it a rift? And I was told that’s a little too harsh. But it definitely sounded like it’s frosty.”
That certainly isn’t encouraging. LeBron James and Russell Westbrook don’t have to be the best of friends, but to get the job done on the court they at least have to be cordial. At this point, they don’t even seem to be on that level.
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Their non-interaction at the Las Vegas Summer League garnered a lot of attention as they sat on opposite ends of the court. It was an odd scene, as teammates usually sit together and cheer on the younger guys, but James and Westbrook couldn’t have been further away from each other.
If Los Angeles has any hope of turning things around this season, they will get those two guys on the same page. If not, Westbrook could experience a similar situation to what John Wall went through with the Houston Rockets, as he isn’t winning a standoff against LeBron James in Los Angeles.
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