Tikteknu: clip summarizing today's events in sports, 10.2 (Sport1)
After a tumultuous 18 months, the Lakers and Russell Westbrook have finally parted ways.
As part of a three-team deal with the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers traded Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damien Jones and a first-round pick to Utah, and a 2024 second-round pick to Minnesota - and received D'Angelo Russell , Malik Beasley and Jared Vanderbilt.
Westbrook was sent to the Jazz, although he is expected to be released, and is now a candidate for Chicago and the Clippers.
In an extensive article about the tensions in the Lakers surrounding Westbrook, the Athletic wrote: "The situation has become unbearable over the past week... The situation in the locker room has become toxic... While Lakers owner Gene Bass has resisted the idea of giving up Westbrook, the coaching staff He pressed and said it was necessary... The Lakers coaches became frustrated with the behavior of Westbrook, who was outraged that his name was openly mentioned in trade discussions."
Los Angeles Lakers players Russell Westbrook and LeBron James are disappointed (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Reaves)
"sucks the blood" of the dressing room
The trade ended Westbrook's horrible tenure with the Lakers - he returned home to an unstable team that suffered a lot from injuries to its two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Recently there has been talk of potential deals with Brooklyn for Kyrie Irving and with Indiana for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield.
Westbrook insisted and stated that "like I said, I've known it's a business since I was 18, 19, since I got into it" - but he was hurt and took things personally.
This was the case, for example, when LeBron James made it clear that he wanted Kyrie Irving, when everyone was clear that if Kyrie comes, it's at Westbrook's expense.
"That's a question to which the answer is yes!", LeBron said when asked if he would like Kyrie.
"Westbrook considered it a personal insult," the Athletic wrote.
Then came the loss to Oklahoma City, during which Westbrook and assistant coach Phil Handy engaged in a verbal altercation — their second in the past month — that ultimately earned the Lakers a delay-of-game warning.
This upset the bench and led to a more heated argument between Westbrook and head coach Darwin Hamm during the break.
Ham admonished the players for focusing too much on their individual game, urging them to play more determinedly and compete.
Westbrook "took it personally. As he has done so many times in the past," it said, "the coaching staff struggled with Westbrook's reluctance to take responsibility for his game, Westbrook didn't pick up on it. . . . The final straw, it seemed, was the selection of Westbrook walking off the court slowly after being substituted late in the second quarter. . . . For both sides, the biggest issue of contention centered on respect — or the lack of it. In the end, as the tension in the locker room added to the toxic atmosphere once again, they agreed to disagree."
As I remember, Darwin Hamm came to the Lakers believing that he would be able to get the best out of Westbrook, and indeed at first there was talk of a change of energies, and the guard himself agreed to come off the bench, but very quickly the team disappointed again, suffered losses, Westbrook was accused of making the wrong decisions, until everything exploded.
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NBA
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Russell Westbrook
Los Angeles Lakers
