Russell Westbrook has to be above this.
I know he is sensitive about being Westbrick, but that is within the realm of acceptable trash talk. He knows Skip Bayless is a troll and trying to get a reaction from him, so he needs to be more like LeBron and just let it go.
He doesn’t look good in these situations.
You can’t threaten a journalist over a nickname, even if it is bad.
Meanwhile, according to LA Times, the Lakers are actively trying to get rid of him so that they can bring in Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie still a top-10 player when healthy and the Lakers don’t have the luxury of turning away a talent of his caliber, regardless of what a wacko he might be.
The plan for renewed glory shared by incoming coach Darvin Ham depends on cement-headed Russell Westbrook learning to play without the ball and participating on defense, which sounds about as realistic as my plans to retire next week after winning the Powerball jackpot.
The Lakers can’t possibly win with Westbrook. With Irving, they might. That’s pretty much the argument.
Built around 37-year-old LeBron James, the Lakers are in win-now mode but with a can’t-win roster. If general manager Rob Pelinka passes on an open shot for Irving, his next two calls might as well be to trade James and Anthony Davis.
Perhaps his compulsion to accentuate his individuality by taking extreme and unorthodox positions will lead to him do the unthinkable: Decline his $37-million option with the Nets and sign with the Lakers under a $6-million midlevel exemption.
In that case, the Lakers wouldn’t have to find a place to dump Westbrook and could just release him.
In the end, people will still call Russ “Westbrick” if that is indeed what he does on the court.
If he improves his shooting, he doesn’t have to worry about the name. Skip is winning because now he has all the attention on him and he is calling out Westbrook to come on the show.
It is a lose-lose for Westbrook. If he comes on the show and Skip calls him Westbrick if he punches in the face it is still a win for Skip who will get the highest ratings for his show ever and if he doesn’t punch him he looks weak for all that stuff he said on Twitter.
The best thing to do with someone like Skip is just ignore him.
Flip the pages for Bayless’s reaction to Russ telling him to watch his mouth.