This past season, some nasty allegations were thrown in the direction of Russell Westbrook before he was shipped off by the Los Angeles Lakers. According to one particular NBA insider, Russ was seen as a “vampire” in the Lakers locker room in that he sucked the energy out of the entire group. These shocking accusations were met with all sorts of reactions from the fans, basketball experts, and of course, Westbrook's own teammates.
Austin Reaves has now shared his view on the often-misunderstood Russell Westbrook. For his part, the young Lakers stud had nothing but good things to say about his ex-teammate:
“He's one of the best teammates I've ever had,” Reaves said on a recent episode of the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “As a person, you can't get much better. I got COVID (in) December of my rookie year in Minnesota. I was stuck in Minnesota for seven days so it was rough. But he reached out three or four times, asked if I need anything, offered to send me stuff, whatever I needed.”
Russ is a real one. This also isn't the first time we've heard his teammates — both past and present — speak so fondly of their experience playing alongside the former league MVP.
The Lakers guard got brutally honest about not comprehending why Westbrook has been painted as such a villain:
“As a teammate, he was always empowering everybody to really be better or do better,” Reaves continued. “Like you said he gets a bad rep, and I don't really understand why.”
The next time you hear any vampire-related accusations thrown at Westbrook, you better bring up what Austin Reaves had to say here about his former Lakers teammate.