Lakers: Russell Westbrook Goes Off on the Media When Asked About Clippers Rumors

Russ was not about to answer this quesiton.

Once upon a time, there were rumors circulating around the NBA that Russell Westbrook wanted to come out west and join up with the Clippers. That report came out from ESPN's Ramona Shelburne who said that he had spoken with Kawhi Leonard before pivoting over to Paul George. 

Ultimately, Westbrook bounced around a little bit before landing with the Lakers this year. But questions about those rumors came up again in a press conference this week, and it resulted in Russ going off about journalistic integrity. Here is some of the dialogue from that back-and-forth. 

You can ask. It’s how you ask it, though. It’s how you ask the question. Where you get it from. That’s very important. How you ask it, it’s different, it’s very direct. Bill asked it with a bunch of b*llshit in the question. There’s just a difference. You ask me very direct, ‘Hey, you know duh duh duh?’ Simple. I can tell you ‘nah’ or I can keep it to myself.

More than anything, it seemed as though the Lakers star had an issue with how the original question was presented to him. He never got around to answering if he actually had interests in coming out to join up with the Clippers. 

The Lakers did pull this portion of the media session from the video files that they release every day. So while the transcript is there, there does not seem to be any actual video footage from the awkward encounter. 

You've got to respect Westbrook taking a little bit of a stand though. If there was absolutely no truth to that rumor, you can imagine how it might rub him the wrong way being asked about it. Especially with the Lakers set to take on the Clippers tonight at Staples Center. 

Tipoff between the two LA teams is set for 7:00 pm.