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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Blake Schuster

Russell Westbrook went off on his Lakers experience in his season-ending press conference

The Los Angeles Lakers tend to exist on a teeter-totter with dysfunction on one side and dynasty teams on the other. Considering the club didn’t make the postseason this year, we can safely say they are firmly in the camp of the former.

It hasn’t even been 24 hours since the regular season ended and already the Lakers appeared to fire their coach without telling him, got thoroughly roasted online after they did announce it in very bizarre fashion, and all of that was before the players even had a chance to speak on the season for themselves.

Well, speak Russell Westbrook did on Monday. And he did not hold back.

After Los Angeles made Westbrook their prized acquisition this year, the guard never seemed to fully find his rhythm playing alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Given the chance to explain why that was, Westbrook went off.

So, yeah. That’ll probably do it for the Russell Westbrook experiment in Los Angeles. While the guard does have a player option for $47 million, it sure seems like both sides are ready for new directions.

Even when given softball questions like “how cool was it to player for the Lakers?” Westbrook didn’t seem interested in giving the fanbase something to feel good about.

It’s also hard to justify keeping together a Big 3 that went 33-49 this season—including 25-30 when Westbrook and James played and 17-22 when it was Westbrook and Davis.

The Lakers have an absolute mess on their hands. Anyone who watched them this year could see it. No single person may be to blame, but the finger pointing has begun in earnest.

Westbrook was the first to admit on Monday that his play was not up to his standards. It doesn’t sound like a second year in Los Angeles will fix things.

But who knows? It’s a long offseason, there’s plenty of recruiting to be done, wine to be shared and the guard says he and James still have a great relationship off the court. Some fences can be mended.

It’s probably for the best if this one just collapses—much like the team that built it.

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