At the starting of the halftime exhibit, Charles Barkley reported in passing, “I need to get anything off my upper body.” And as constantly, the TNT crew had to go to split because you know the fellas always operate the clock out with all the banter. When they came back from crack, they gave Chuck the phase and he went on to talk about how “they” have taken the joy out of basketball for Russell Westbrook.

“It is really time for the Lakers to transfer on… They have taken all his pleasure out of everyday living and basketball.”
Chuck goes off on Russell Westbrook with the Lakers pic.twitter.com/ktevt7J0ns

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 19, 2022
In the initially half of the activity, Reggie Miller was conversing about how Russ averaged 18-7-7 final time, posing the rhetorical query, “if you look at most of the league would you want that PG on your crew?” The solution was an emphatic Certainly. At this place it poses the query, what other outside the house things are at participate in that could enable explain why Russ is beneath these scrutiny much better but, what may well have induced Russ to have the lowest PPG given that the next 12 months of his profession?
Is it the tension of actively playing for the Showtime Lakers and possessing to stay up to the greats? Is it simply because the ball receives operate as a result of Lebron instead of him on offense? Is his fascination in vogue receiving in the way of his working day occupation? Or does the harassment that Westbrook and his family have endured in his struggle to healthy in with the Lakers have something to do with it?
I could see how all of those things contributed to his lackluster effectiveness final period, but I feel #LakerNation, and all basketball enthusiasts for that matter, wants to give him a probability to demonstrate why he is a to start with ballot corridor of fame.
You don’t just get paid an MVP overnight.
It requires countless several hours of dedication to your craft. It is really unlikely that Russ earns that form of award on this variety of Lakers crew, but he understands what it takes to be good. He’s also in his 14th 12 months in the NBA, he’s no “young buck.”
The Lakers concluded 11th over-all in the NBA very last season with a record of 33-49. Russell Westbrook performed 78 game titles. Anthony Davis performed 40 video games and was out the rest owing to injuries.
Could you consider striving to uncover chemistry in your initially calendar year on a workforce with Lebron, when you had supposed on obtaining that chemistry with Anthony Davis? There was no opportunity of the season’s game approach being executed simply because of unforeseen conditions, so there is no sense in making use of Frank Vogel or Russ as scapegoats. Regrettably, Frank Vogel doesn’t have a chance to defend himself following acquiring allow go just 1 calendar year right after profitable a championship for one of the best franchises of all time.
Russell Westbrook has the most triple-doubles in NBA background (194).
In Video game 1 of the 2022-2023 period, Russ had 19 PTS, 11 REB, 3 AST. His sport may not be fairly at 33, but he’s usually going to give his team 110% to check out and get the earn.

Kyle Richards
I’m a style thinker, a builder of digital items, and a business believer in the electric power of sports.