EL Segundo, Calif. — With Frank Vogel being fired as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers earlier in the day, Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook opened up about the disconnect between the two of them in their first season in LA.
"I think it's unfortunate, to be honest, because I've never had a problem with any of my coaches before," Westbrook said Monday after an exit interview with the Lakers front office. "I'm not sure what his issue was with me or I'm not sure why, but I can't really give you an answer as to why we never really connected."
Westbrook, who was the highest-paid player during the Lakers' nightmare 2021-22 season, just wasn't done with his gripes with the coach. He hit out at several other aspects of his Lakers experience that went awry in his 21-minute news conference, in which he described how he felt that he had been wronged.
“When I first came here, the ability to be able to do what I am capable of doing for a team and an organization was not given a fair chance,” he said.
Westbrook blamed false news reports as a contributing factor to their struggles last season.
Westbrook said, "The famous 'source' stories that came out about me, whether it was between me and the employees, me and Frank, me and the fans, are just so many made-up stories that just aren't true." "It always has to fight against it relentlessly. It's not given a fair chance. It's like, 'Okay, now I have to fight against this made up story. Now I have to fight against it. Now I go to fight against it. Now I have to fight against it.'"
When he was asked directly to give an example of a concoction about his time with the Lakers, he did not give a specific response.
"No," said Westbrook. "I can't. You know the examples. I don't want to go into details, what story, who wrote it, why... It's pointless. It doesn't really matter because it's not true. If it were is' not come from me [that's not true]."
The 2017 league MVP also said that LeBron James' and Anthony Davis' intentions were to "let Russia be the juice" in unlocking the former All-Star's best version.
"Yeah, [he said]," Westbrook said. "But it was not true."
When asked to elaborate, Westbrook said it came down to being unable to complement each other.
"It's a combination of where we're on the floor, being able to play position, fit and challenge, trial and error, with each other on the floor," Westbrook said. "Finding ways to be able to make the best use of our abilities. It's that simple."
Westbrook, who has a player option for $47 million next season, had no easy answer when asked if he plans to practice it. "Umm, I'll decide," he said. "That's why it's called 'player choice'."
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers' vice president and general manager of basketball operations, committed to not giving the James-Davis-Westbrook group another chance next season, should Westbrook be picked.
"Like any player, we will partner with him after deciding what is best for his future," Pelinka said. “Be assured, we are going to look under every stone for ways to get better and are open to anything that will improve our team and position us to compete at a higher level next year than this year.” I'll keep it."
Westbrook, who played 78 games and scored 18.5 points on 44.4% shooting (3 to 29.8%), 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, admitted that his production did not meet his personal standards.
"Just my game in general, not my best season, just off my own personal scale," he said. "Obviously I'm coming off a triple-double average, so anything less than that wouldn't be a good season for me in my eyes, you know what I'm saying? So that's a measure of where it comes from. It's a little different."
After losing last week to the Phoenix Suns, which officially left the Lakers out of play-in tournament contention, Westbrook said the "plan" would be to play for LA again next season so that he, James and Davis could see how they look together. with health benefits. They played just 21 matches together this season due to various injuries, leading 11–10.
"I just hope we have a chance to be able to do something," he said.
After all the complaints Westbrook shared on Monday, he was asked what would attract him to play for the Lakers again, with additional context seemingly not consistent with his previous announcement.
"I mean, obviously there's going to be a lot of different changes depending on who the coach is and our style of play and how we play," he said. "So, that question is up in the air. But once that decision is made, we will go from there."