As the inevitable messy divorce between Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers creeps closer, the 33-year-old took to Instagram to scrub any posts that can tie him back to his time with the Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards and Lakers. The only posts that remain for Westbrook that affiliate himself with a team is the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he spent the first 11 seasons of his career at.
Now this could be interpreted in several ways. One of those is that Westbrook just simply wanted to clean up his feed, but the timing of it is too coincidental to not think this was an intentional move by him to initiate the separation between himself and the Lakers. Which leads to the next interpretation that Westbrook did this so that it sends a message to the Lakers that he officially no longer wants to be there.
Another long-shot interpretation could be that perhaps Westbrook wants to come back to his original team. This isn’t realistic to say the least unless the Lakers are willing to give up unprotected first-round draft picks and Westbrook is willing to give some of his money back in a potential buyout. Both of these agreements are a long stretch, so a possible reunion for Westbrook and Oklahoma City is extremely unlikely unless the stars align.
Westbrook spend 11 years with the Thunder, where he achieved both team and individual success littered with a Finals appearance, multiple Western Conference Finals appearances, multiple All-NBA and All-Star appearances and being named the 2016-17 MVP.
