Pundit Believes Social Media, Not Poor Play, Caused Lakers Fans To Dehumanize Russell Westbrook
Ex-Los Angeles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook's terrible, inefficient play for LA was no reason for LA fans to turn on him, if Gary Sheffield Jr. is to be believed.
Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bovada Sports recently spoke with colleague Sheffield about Westbrook's tarnished Los Angeles reputation. Sheffield, for his part, places the onus for fans' dislike on a collective social media animus.
"I am rooting for him," Sheffield acknowledged of the former 2017 MVP. "And I would say the majority of people on social media are not rooting for any player that they don't think is effective."
"I am personally rooting for Russell Westbrook because I feel that we don't humanize athletes," Sheffield explained. "We forget that they're people... It's the reason you see all these outlashes with Westbrook between him and fans. Do I think it's a little ridiculous that he's going in the crowd and attacking fans? I do. Or getting into exchanges with, frankly, nobodies. Yeah that's ridiculous. But he's doing that because he's a human being that cares [about] how he's perceived by the public. That's why he does it. So when someone's going through something like that, I want things to work out for that player."
Westbrook was so bad for the Lakers that the team's midseason turnaround en route to an eventual Western Conference Finals appearance was more or less an addition by subtraction. The team added several new players -- including D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura -- in the weeks and days ahead of the trade deadline, but it was the move to ditch Westbrook and re-distribute his minutes that, more than anything else, really saved LA's 2022-23 season from a second straight missed playoffs. He finished his 2022-23 season with the Clippers.
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