Russell Westbrook had an extremely tumultuous tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers that ended unceremoniously to say the least. Still, head coach Darvin Ham believes that Westbrook still deserves his flowers for his time with the Lakers, via the #thisleague UNCUT podcast.

“And I told Russ, I said—and shout out to Russ, man. He takes a lot of blame, and everybody seems to want to talk stuff about him … but some of the stuff he has to endure, and he’s still a very, very highly capable basketball player. I appreciate him for just giving it a chance and complying with what I wanted to do and just taking a bullet for the team.”

Ham goes on to emphasize that Westbrook was willing to do whatever he asked of him, including coming off of the bench. He even stresses that Westbrook was the Lakers saving grace from the bench at times.

“People forget, man, when he came in from that reserve role, and we would put runners and shooters and rim rollers and finishers around him. There’s times they were chanting MVP for Russ. He saved our ass a bunch of nights where we started off flat and he came in and he pushed the tempo. He brought that energy. And you look up, and now we’ve gone on a 12-to-2 or 10–0 run as soon as he stepped into the lineup off the bench.”

It is clear that Darvin Ham really appreciates the heart and energy that Russell Westbrook gave to the Lakers. Only time will tell if Lakers fans eventually show Westbrook the same gratitude.