When Russell Westbrook joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021, expectations were high, not just for him, but for all the stars in the squad assembled to chase another title after their 2020 triumph. Boy, did that team fail.
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No one, however, suffered a fall from grace, reputation-wise, quite like Westbrook, who left the Lakers two years later. But he went through an extremely difficult time in Purple and Gold.
With the franchise cornerstone, LeBron James, things just never clicked. And often, for the Lakers’ failures, Westbrook was made the scapegoat. And Westbrook has not quite been the same since then.
He moved to the Clippers, spent a season and a half there, before joining the Denver Nuggets. And, ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, he remains without a team. It’s shocking to see Westbrook as washed as he has become. And his former teammate Enes Kanter blames James and the Lakers for this.
Kanter, who was teammates with Westbrook at Oklahoma City for three years, loved playing with him. “He’s the type of guy that makes himself and everyone else around him better,” he had said in a 2018 interview.
That’s precisely why the 33-year-old retired baller finds it difficult to see him without any suitors today. Kanter traces it all back to teaming up with Bron and how there’s always someone around him to blame when things don’t work out for James’ teams.
“If you play with someone like LeBron, it’s all about LeBron, and if the season fails, then you need some kind of scapegoat. That year, they picked Russ as a scapegoat. After that, look at his career; this guy unfortunately can’t even find a team right now. It’s crazy. I feel bad,” Kanter said in a recent interview.
Back then, critics judged him purely on his shooting abilities since he didn’t have too much of the ball in his hands. LeBron was the prime facilitator, and the Lakers also had Anthony Davis as a No.2 option.
Westbrook’s strengths, which included driving the ball towards the rim and his aggressiveness, never gelled well with the tactics he was forced to follow. Still, in 21-22, he averaged 18 points a game, with 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. That’s hardly what anyone would call “bad”.
Sadly, for Russell, the Lakers as a whole were woeful. They finished 11th in the Western Conference, which was disastrously short of what they had expected when they signed legends like Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard.
To be honest, the team was washed. And Bron’s generational brilliance wasn’t enough to carry them over the line.
Westbrook’s career was never the same afterward. He has hardly ever been relied upon as a starter since then, and has been grinding hard to earn minutes. This is one reason Kanter doesn’t appreciate the Lakers of that year. That said, his disdain toward LeBron is nothing new.
Why Kanter hates Bron
James is the face of the league. Yes, there will be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic backers today, but even at the age of 40, what Bron does creates ripples in every corner of the NBA. Just take his recent “second decision” ad announcement that became an overnight headline because people thought he was gonna retire.
The four-time NBA champ knows how to stay in the limelight. And that habit irks Kanter off. He doesn’t like how James always gets his way. “LeBron is literally, like the dictator of the NBA,” Kanter once said.
Kanter had also lambasted James for getting his son, Bronny, into the league despite him not being NBA material. “The reason that he got drafted was because of LeBron. The reason JJ Reddick is the coach is because of LeBron,” he said.
The former Portland Trailblazer further described how, despite there being so many free agents in the league over the last few years, no major player has chosen to play with LeBron because of his habit of being ‘dictatorial’.
Now Kanter’s approach to LeBron could be because of sheer jealousy. After all, several teammates have praised LeBron over the years.
The amount of success he has had, both personally and at the team level, means he has also earned the right to have things go his way. That doesn’t suit Kanter, but Bron doesn’t care.
