“Kevin Durant was right in calling ‘environment playing with LeBron James TOXIC’”: Report about Russell Westbrook’s mental state echoes Nets star’s claim in 2018
Kevin Durant’s take on playing with LeBron James could be a reason why nothing worked out for Russell Westbrook and the Lakers.
Both Russell Westbrook and the Lakers had few other options when Brodie agreed to join his hometown club, accepting the offer which was backed by both LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
But nothing worked out the way any of those individuals would have thought it would and exactly did turn out like the rest of the world thought it would. The lakers also signed several other veterans to support the big-3, in Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Trevor Ariza, Avery Bradley, and Wayne Ellington.
That caused the social media to go mad about the team that suddenly went from a young squad with a few veterans to an old squad with a couple of youngsters. To add to the trouble, none of these veterans were in their prime or anywhere close to it.
LeBron believed in that bunch and even told the whole world to keep the same energy when the season ends. Although he was bizarrely wrong, that was one of the best and most positive statements by him.
But the King himself couldn’t keep that energy throughout the season even if he wanted to if you believe KD back from December 2018.
Kevin Durant felt playing with LeBron James could be toxic, is that what happened with Russell Westbrook?
In a Bleacher Report story, the Slim Reaper talked about why nobody wanted to play with James anymore despite him still being the best player in the league at the time. He said that it’s not the 18x All-Star’s fault, but the unnecessary media attention around him all the time that makes it toxic for other players. Thanks to this Tweet we came upon which reminded us of the incident.
KD was right. I kinda feel bad for Russ. pic.twitter.com/6hJXJsqypP
— Guru (@DrGuru_) April 8, 2022
That’s precisely what happened since the time Russell came to LA. The man who had just led a lottery-bound Washington Wizards team to the Playoffs became the main target of the media since the Lakers’ misery started, which was Day 1 of their 2021-22 campaign.
It would’ve helped Brodie if LeBron came to his defense after bad games for once as he did before the start of the season or on the off days he played well. But none of James, AD, or their head coach Frank Vogel did anything to stop the lynching the 2017 MVP suffered at the hands of media and fans.
As a result, the sword fell on all of them. Now that the Lakers are out of even in the Play-in tournament, the big-3 will most certainly break up, and there’s much more certainty around Vogel’s departure. It could all have turned out differently if they were more of a team or the environment were less toxic.
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