Russell Westbrook’s time with the Los Angeles Lakers, from 2021 to 2023, has come under heavy scrutiny now, two years after he departed from the team. He has been struggling to land deals with teams since then, and to many, teaming up with LeBron James on the court marked the beginning of his downfall.
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Westbrook, who recently joined the Sacramento Kings, doesn’t think too highly of The King. But did he really call James “fake”? That’s what many believe, with the narrative that resurfaced recently.
The comment dates back to Russ’ Lakers days. But here’s the thing. The story has come out in a new book titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers, written by Yaron Weitzman, who claimed that Russ made those comments to an unnamed source.
As things stand today, the comment could be enough to smear James’ name further, but it’s anything but confirmed. That’s why Richard Jefferson, who won a ring with the King in 2016, isn’t buying into it too much yet.
Jefferson spoke about this latest controversy on the Road Trippin podcast along with fellow veteran Channing Frye, who also knows Bron well.
“The book can’t sell without these types of things. If you’re just telling a story, there’s no gotcha moment,” stated Jefferson, who noted that the entire narrative of Weitzman’s book had to be laced in drama, since it was literally in the title.
“So if you look at this, there’s an unnamed source that is saying something, and this is where the beef started. So now we’re talking about something that is hypothetical that we cannot confirm. That we don’t know. So that’s where it’s like, I don’t know if that happened,” added Jefferson, who also mentioned that he wasn’t saying these comments were untrue.
It is just that Jefferson was not going to fully buy into the story until he got it directly from the source itself. And there is no doubt the former forward should question it.
The lack of media literacy in today’s society is astounding. Too many people will just accept rumors as fact. Why? Because they’re too lazy to do any follow-up research.
RJ, for one, knows what kind of person LeBron is from their time together on the Cavaliers. He shared a story that showed James being genuine.
“We had a film session and Bron was being grumpy. Then we had dinner that night, Channing and I were like, ‘Naw, we ain’t going to dinner with his old grumpy a**.’ As soon as we get there, Bron’s a little tipsy now, right? And he comes over to us and is like, ‘Guys, I’m sorry I was being so grumpy earlier.’ And Channing and I were like, ‘It’s okay, big fella. We know you got a lot on your shoulders,'” narrated Jefferson.
They were laughing, but Frye and Jefferson seemed to genuinely understand what LeBron was going through. The weight of the league had been on his shoulders for so long. No amount of success would ever allow a certain section of the basketball world to let LeBron live down any kind of failure.
Jefferson added that everyone at that time was generally grumpy. “Cause we were all being grumpy. He knew he was being grumpy, but we were all chill because we knew how much this motherf***** got on his shoulders.”
“That’s the human side we get to see. Maybe somebody else didn’t get to see that space because he’s always got to be a certain way. But I’ve seen him be real. I’ve seen him on some real sh**, like apologizing to his bros for being super grumpy. And I’ve been around superstars who would never f****** do that,” added RJ.
This already seems more believable than the unnamed source’s version of James in the book. Sure, he’s probably not a saint to everyone, but to claim he’s “fake” just because he carries the pressure of being the face of the NBA is downright bad.
James has people in his inner circle who are closer to him. And there’s no denying the bond he shares with Frye and RJ. That 2016 Cavaliers team pulled off the impossible, coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors to make history. They still joke that they’re all on a group text together.
So while headlines might love the idea of more ‘LeBron drama’, this one feels like a stretch. The people who actually know him have seen the real LeBron, flaws and all. He’s not perfect.
But “fake” doesn’t fit the guy who owns up to his bad moods and apologizes to teammates. The truth usually comes from those who were actually there, not from an unnamed source.
