I can not tell you how much it bothers me when a player undermines his teammates to the media and then isn’t man enough to put his name behind the quotes.
A team is about trust. It doesn’t matter if you know that Westbrook thinks he is better than Durant or not, that is something that you keep to yourself and not blab to the media.
You are in the middle of the Western Conference Finals, you know if you make that statement, it is going to be a huge story, so why even do it and the fact the player won’t attach his name to it lets you know that he knows it was wrong.
Here is the story.
What undoubtedly fueled Westbrook’s fiery response is a sense of entitlement. As one Thunder veteran said, privately, “He thinks he’s better than Kevin Durant.”
Not only that, but Westbrook has the backing of Thunder GM Sam Presti, who made a name for himself with his drafting of Westbrook with the fourth pick in 2008. Presti’s micromanagement behind the scenes has caused some friction between the head of the front office and his coaches, but Brooks didn’t pay any attention to that when he saw that Maynor was his best option to even the series.
It isn’t “private” if you tell the media.
I think most of use with common sense can see Russell Westbury errrrrrrrr Westbrook is having a hard time playing Bobby Brown to Durant’s Ralph Tresvant.
These matters need to be handle internally.
Westbrook may have as much pure talent as Durant, but it is his mentality that is going to put him on that “Starbury” path if he isn’t careful.