“What’d you say, the Crip Arena?”: Russell Westbrook jokes about the home arena of the LA Lakers being renamed

The most iconic arena in Los Angeles, Staples Center, will now be Crypto.com arena and NBA players are reacting to this change

For all the basketball fans who grew up in LA post the 90s, Staples Center was Mecca for you. It’s where all the iconic Kobe moments happened, it’s where Shaq dominated and floored the opponents and it is where Allen Iverson crossed over Tyronn Lue in the 2001 Finals.

That iconic arena, one of the most famous arenas in the United States or probably the world, is going to have a name change. It’s going to be called Crypto.com Arena starting this year’s Christmas.

And the people all over the globe and in the NBA community have been talking about the change since its announcement a few days back. Russell Westbrook joined that party.

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Russell Westbrook cannot understand what is the new name of Staples Center

Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook is as LA as one can be, he attended his High School – Lawndale Leuzinger High, and College – UCLA in LA. And being a baller since his childhood Staples is always going to be the same for him he says, whatever might be the new name.

In his interview after the Lakers lost the Bucks game Wednesday night, Russ was told about the change and he seemed to not get it.

He said, “The Crip??? What’d you said, the Crip Arena?”

“I didn’t know what you said. My bad,” Westbrook joked. “I thought you said the Crip Arena.”

Then he explained why changing the name would not change the sentiments attached to it.

“Yeah, you know, honestly the business side of basketball and how deals go down, obviously as players we don’t know exactly what happens and how it goes down,” Westbrook said.

Through this deal, the owners will be earning in surplus of $700 million earned, quite a nasty amount to name the building. They had to take it even if the name nasty as well

“We kind of just see it like everybody else and we saw it today, not really knowing the details of it. But it’s the Staples Center. The Staples Center has got so many great memories, just for me as a kid, growing up in L.A. So many great things have happened in that building. Regardless of the name, the building is still the building and that’s what’s most important and that’s all you can think about.”

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Eight of Lakers’ seventeen championship trophies have come under the name Staples Center. Kobe and Shaq three-peat, Shaq’s 3 finals MVPs, Kobe chasing Shaq for rings and MVPs after they split up. Far too many great memories were made on this building to forget its name.