In one of the biggest moves of the year, Westbrook was traded from Washington, to Los Angeles to play alongside LeBron, AD and newly acquired Carmelo Anthony. During a press conference that was held to officially announce his addition to the Lakers, a reporter asked Russ about his close relationship with Kobe Bryant and if he had crossed his mind when he signed with Lakers. Russ of course said it has crossed his mind.
It hasn’t left my head. Things me and him talked about. The potential of being a Laker and what that entails. Its just crazy to think about when I put that jersey on”.
Russ continued to add on how ‘surreal’ it has been to play for his hometown team being from Long Beach, CA.
“It’s surreal,” Westbrook said. “I think it still hasn’t kind of hit me yet that — being from LA, growing up not too far from here, being able to watch the (championship) parades, trying to miss school to try to go to them, being a Laker fan and being from L.A., now everything is coming full circle for me. It’s is a blessing. You know it’s a lot of things I can’t put into actual words just because some of these dreams don’t come true for people like myself. I’m truly blessed and thankful for this opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.”
Westbrook also played two years at UCLA until he was drafted away from his western roots. But in lieu of LeBron James desperation to win another title, Westbrook along with James and Pelinka, helped orchestrate the trade.
“Obviously, being from LA, you always wish that you can play for your home team and being able to do that,” Westbrook said. “But that’s definitely something that always kind of circled around in my mind, and ‘maybe one day’ but I always would come back and be like ‘that probably won’t happen.’ I just kind of waited to see if that ever happened. But now we’re here and I’m gonna take full advantage of it.”
Westbrook turns 33 this November and will be a big part of one of the oldest rosters in NBA history.
Flip the page to watch Russell Westbrook’s full response on what it means to him that he signed to the Lakers and how this brought up memories of Kobe Bryant.
