Lakers News: LA Chastised League-Wide For Treatment Of Russell Westbrook
Los Angeles Lakers-turned-Los Angeles Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook, a UCLA legend and Long Beach native, seems to be finding his footing a bit more with his new club than his prior team, as Sean Deveney of Heavy.com writes. Tonight in Crypto.com Arena, Westbrook's Clippers downed the Lakers 125-118, though the Clips led by significantly more than seven points for much of the game.
No doubt Westbrook saw it as payback for a Lakers team that gave up on him at the February 9th trade deadline (well, he was flipped on the 8th). He inked a rest-of-year deal with the Clippers and has been the team's starting point guard ever since. He has been a much better fit on a Clippers team loaded with switchier defenders and better three-point shooting than the pre-trade Lakers had to offer.
“Model citizen, really,” a Clippers source told Deveney of Westbrook's behavior with his new LA team. “He helps with younger players, he is good in the locker room, everyone likes him. He is comfortable and it is showing.”
“I have never known him to be a locker room problem or anything like that,” an NBA executive noted of Westbrook, who of course was called a vampire by Lakers sources after he was dealt. “Whatever you might not like about his game, he is always where you want him to be off the court.”
“[The Clippers] are letting Russ be Russ, that is something a lot of us have been saying for a while,” a Western Conference assistant coach informed Deveney. “The Lakers brought him in and tried to make him a different player, tried to force him to be something he is not. And that led to a lot of the problems they had with each other. But the Lakers left him hung out to dry there.
If a Battle of LA happens in the postseason this year at last (which, to be fair, seems a tad unlikely), you know Westbrook will be ready.
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