LeBron wants Kyrie Irving to be on the Lakers and wants to ship Russell Westbrook across the country away from his family to Brooklyn.
I can understand why Westbrook is up because it was LeBron who recruited him to the Lakers and now is trying to get rid of him.
Here is how they avoided each other like the plague at Summer League.
Naturally, on Friday night in Las Vegas, LeBron James didn’t play basketball but still owned the room, while Russell Westbrook-related drama was the biggest storyline surrounding a Los Angeles Lakers game.
The Lakers, coached by Jordan Ott, were blown out 104-84 by the Phoenix Suns in their NBA 2K23 Las Vegas Summer League debut. Every eyeball inside the Thomas & Mack Center, however, was fixated on The King — and who entered his personal space.
Summer League is very lax. There’s a dense convergence of NBA folks in small spaces, including UNLV’s intimate arena. Hordes of players, agents, coaches, media, etc. are bumping into each other all over the place. Certainly, this applies to LeBron James, the most famous NBA person, who was on hand to support the young Lakers. Throughout the roughly 90 minutes he chilled courtside, a constant stream of prominent league figures enjoyed facetime with LeBron.
One person who did not share a moment with James? The second-most famous person in the room … and his teammate.
The nine-time All=Star and the Lakers’ highest-paid player — whom LeBron James might be working to trade and who took shots at LeBron after the season, sat by the Lakers bench, about 94 feet away from LeBron — a stark difference from last summer. Westbrook did lead the huddle on occasion.
Cold world, no snuggie.
It could be nothing. It could be something.
We will see what happens. None of this will matter if Westbrook is traded, but if he isn’t, it could get real interesting.
Flip the pages for their lack of communication and Twitter reactions to the beef.