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Russell Westbrook has been on the receiving end of vitriol over the last few years. Unfairly or not, he has been booed on numerous occasions, particularly during his nearly two-year stint with the LA Lakers. The former MVP still gets whistles and catcalls now that he’s with the LA Clippers, but not as much as before. Westbrook has had times where he confronted some fans off and on the court.
Despite the sometimes heated exchanges between Westbrook and some fans, most NBA players have expressed nothing but appreciation for him. Several of his former and current teammates swear that he is one of the, if not the greatest, teammates they’ve ever had. They couldn’t understand why he gets a ton of hate, particularly on social media.
A heartwarming video of Russell Westbrook playing in the backyard with his family recently went viral. Some fans quickly reacted to the clip:
“this the man yall hate on?
In the video, the nine-time All-Star played hoops with his wife Nina Westbrook and their three kids. It looked like Westbrook and his twin daughters were teammates while the mother and son were on the same team. Noah Westbrook tried dribbling past the defense before eventually passing to his mom who scored after a smooth reverse layup using the board.
In an interview several years ago, the former OKC Thunder star had this to say about the importance of being a husband and wife:
“Being a dad is more important to me than anything else," Westbrook said. "...It’s important that Noah knows I’m his dad first and not a basketball player or anything else that I do. That’s the most important part to me to make sure that being a father, husband and a family man is more important than anything else.”
Russell Westbrook has taken a backseat again for the good of the team
In Russell Westbrook’s last months with the LA Lakers, he agreed to coach Darvin Ham’s plan to come off the bench. Despite not the sacrifice, “Brodie” went on to become an early favorite for the Sixth Man of the Year award before he was traded.
This season, Westbrook didn’t wait for Ty Lue to ask him the same thing. He offered not to start to give the LA Clippers better balance and rhythm following the arrival of James Harden from the Philadelphia 76ers.
So far, Westbrook’s sacrifice hasn’t yielded better results yet for the LA Clippers. They have had brutal losses since he came off the bench. Perhaps the most embarrassing loss of his career was to the Denver Nuggets on Nov. 28. The defending champs didn’t have Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon and still beat the healthy Clippers at Crypto.com Arena.
Perhaps the new-look LA Clippers will figure things out. If not, no one can accuse Russell Westbrook of not doing his part to try and make things go smoothly.
