Oftentimes, a professional athlete often has to face the reality that the same group of fans that built them up into a national star will tear them down. The legitimacy of the reason doesn't matter, so much as the catharsis that comes from the mob being appeased, or the vindication felt by someone that's always doubted or disliked them.
As it so happens, this became the reality for 2017 NBA MVP Russell Westbrook, once a highly popular player with the Oklahoma City Thunder but one that became the butt of the joke while playing for his home state Los Angeles Lakers.
What made it so bad for Westbrook wasn't just the criticisms that were levied at his play though, some of which were legitimate gripes. It was that for the first time in his career, he was being painted as a locker room vampire; a player that sapped the positive energy out of rooms he entered. With both his character and his play under constant attack, Westbrook managed to have an upbeat attitude, but the writing was on the fall so far as his tenure with the Lakers.
Two sides of the same coin
Interestingly enough, Russell Westbrook would join the Los Angeles Lakers' ‘little brother' franchise — the Los Angeles Clippers — almost immediately after they traded him. Even more interesting is that the Clippers — the team, organization, and fan base — all seemed to take to Westbrook more than their Lakers counterparts, and he to them.
Since the end of the 2022-23 season, there have been myriad reports countering the characterization of Westbrook during his time with the Lakers. Even his former teammates have explicitly defended his leadership and camaraderie.
Former NBA star Baron Davis would also chime in. As a former NBA star who spent multiple seasons with the Clippers and so happens to be a Los Angeles native, he's one of the people most qualified to speak on Westbrook's time in L.A.
“Russ got love from the real people in this city,” Davis says, per Joey Linn of AllClippers. “When you look at LA as an entertainment space, a media source, and what the national media picks up, he didn't get the attention that he should've gotten [with the Lakers]. But he's always got love here.”
Of his time with the Clippers specifically, Davis says that “[Westbrook's] leadership definitely helped the energy the Clippers played with. That type of determination and will as a backbone, I think that's what the Clippers needed, that backbone and that energy source.”
The Clippers went 11-10 with Westbrook in the regular season, with the former MVP's solid balance of shot-creation and playmaking helping him average 15.8 points. 7.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game on 48.9 percent shooting from the field and 35.6 percent shooting from 3.
He would average 23.4 points, 7.4 assists, 7.6 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per game on 41.0 percent shooting from the field and 35.7 percent shooting from deep in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
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