Source: Michael Reaves / Getty
Russell Westbrook was only a member of the Los Angeles Lakers for about a season and a half, from 2021 to 2023, and even that may have been too long.
The nine-time All-Star’s relationship with LeBron James has been questionable for years now, but in a new excerpt from Yaron Weitzman’s A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers, published on The Ringer, we know it all started being noticed by the public in the summer of 2022.
Fresh off a 33-49 record the previous season, the two sat on opposite sides of the court during a Summer League game at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, and not once did they acknowledge each other or offer a dap in passing.
It was a moment that played out so publicly that it was hard to ignore and would eventually affect the following season.
“We knew that we’d have to bring Westbrook off the bench eventually because things weren’t a good fit,” a Lakers coach said. “But seeing that play out that night, it was like, ‘Oh, these motherf-ckers aren’t even talking to each other.’”
It all boiled over at the beginning of the next season when Will Smith was scheduled to visit the Lakers’ practice facility. But before he could arrive, James stormed out, and Anthony Davis followed behind him.
When Westbrook tried to leave, fellow veteran Patrick Beverley objected.
“Nah, Russ. We gotta stay,” he said. “Them two guys can do whatever the f-ck they want. They won a championship.”
Eventually, James was coaxed back into the room when Smith arrived, and when the room was opened up to questions, King James was suddenly interested and peppered the actor with inquiries for nearly an hour.
“The same guy who was trying to leave is now quoting back movie lines and going through the guy’s whole life story,” said one attendee.
An annoyed Westbrook sat there as well, telling a teammate prior to the photo op, “I hate that fake sh-t.” That was only the most recent time that Westbrook was over James’ “reputation.”
As Weitzman writes, Westbrook had witnessed many other times when he felt James was “seemingly misrepresenting himself.”
“There was the time LeBron claimed that The Godfather was his favorite movie, but then failed to recall a single line when asked during a press conference to name one.
“There was the time he carried The Autobiography of Malcolm X into a media session but stumbled when asked to name his biggest takeaway. There was the time during an interview when he claimed that, the night Kobe scored 81 points, he’d predicted beforehand that he’d go for 70, a clip so widely mocked that it became a popular meme. LeBron’s reputation for bending the truth was so widespread that he even got teased while appearing in would-be safe spaces.”
See how social media is reacting to the brutal honesty below.
