The Lakers’ aspirations of winning a second championship with LeBron James were thrown back for several years when they traded for Russell Westbrook in the summer of 2021.
James reportedly selected Westbrook to take the point guard position in Los Angeles when he joined the Lakers in the hopes of forming a Big 3 with LeBron and Anthony Davis. But the connection between James and Westbrook rapidly soured, and it soon became evident that the on-court marriage was doomed.
Westbrook and James were at odds, and a new story from Yaron Weitzman’s upcoming book “A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers” published in The Ringer describes how bad things got after the Lakers’ disastrous 2021–22 season.
Westbrook and LeBron James’s strange relationship
Westbrook’s dissatisfaction with James’s methods of conducting business in Los Angeles culminated in the most peculiar of circumstances—a Will Smith speaking engagement at Lakers practice. Weitzman claims that the two were hardly on speaking terms heading into the ’22–23 season due to rumors that James wanted the Lakers to trade Russ for Kyrie Irving.
Westbrook effectively took issue with what he perceived to be James’s false behavior once Smith arrived; the entire tale is worth reading here.
This is because Westbrook requested if the rest of the team could go as well after James and Davis left before Smith arrived to address the group. Patrick Beverley told him that was untrue and that LeBron and AD were given preferential treatment. Following a dispute, coach Darvin Ham finally reintroduced James and Davis before calling Smith in to talk.
All things considered, the Lakers lost a couple years during the Westbrook period and may have lost their opportunity to develop around James and Davis.
