Before LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Tuesday night, Lakers guard Russell Westbrook and head coach Darvin Ham had a “brief, heated verbal exchange” in the locker room at halftime, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
According to Wojnarowski, Ham expressed displeasure with the way Westbrook lingered on the court after being subbed out of the game late in the second quarter.
However, Wojnarowski says that after voices were raised, the discussion turned back to trying to win Tuesday’s contest vs. Oklahoma City. Westbrook and Ham dapped up before leaving the arena later in the night, according to Woj, who points out that the former MVP was part of the Lakers’ closing lineup in the loss to the Thunder.
Westbrook and assistant coach Phil Handy also had a heated discussion on the bench in the first half of the game, says Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
Verbal confrontations between coaches and players aren’t exactly rare in the NBA, and the Lakers will surely downplay the heated discussion Westbrook and Ham had at halftime. Still, both the team and the veteran guard are under a microscope this week with the trade deadline looming.
Westbrook has been viewed as a trade candidate for the better part of a year and his name popped up in rumors again as of late. In addition to having reportedly talked to both Charlotte and Utah about possible deals involving the 34-year-old, the Lakers included him in their offer for Kyrie Irving before Brooklyn sent Irving to Dallas. James subsequently expressed disappointment that the Lakers were unable to land Irving.
Tuesday’s halftime exchange is unlikely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and convinces the Lakers to trade Westbrook, but with the guard’s future in Los Angeles very much up in the air and the 25-30 Lakers looking for a shot in the arm, it’s one more reason to keep an eye on the situation in L.A.
Forget about Russ the whole team had no energy in that game. It was the worse thing I ever saw. They let the thunder walk all over them
With 3 all time greats, Lakers are sticky with the 13th seed. This would never happen in the nba history.
The triangle would automatically fix Westbrook, but Ham has not learned it.
Lakers need revolution.
Injury is not the problem compared to the teams in the same division
Clippers
Warriors
Suns
Who exactly are their 3 “all-time greats”??
@Pedro I know you’re trolling, but give credit where credit is due. Those 3 were named in the top 75 greatest NBA players of all time, after all.
I’m with Pedro, Lebron and who are the other two all time greats?
@colored No I’m not trolling. LeBron is great, Westbrook is a washed-up has-been, and Davis is too injury prone to be counted on. Their former talents and reputations do not match their current realities
Massive milestone for Bron. But what they did was a travesty to the game.
Let the game end before doing a talkshow
You can’t teach passion!
Gotta give Westbrook some credit for dressng up and playing most of the games this season. He could have easily gone John Wall route and not play at all. He has also made great adjustment coming off the bench. By doing so, he has prolonged his career but he’s still diva. He missed out on celebrating a historical moment last night.
Westbrook wants more than a “John Wall at this stage of his career” type salary next year.
It’s really about padding stats, career stats… :)
iirc, John Wall did not have a choice. The Rockets told him they were not going to play him.
They gave him an option to play coming off the bench and he refused. He only wanted to play as a starter. And now even the Clips are trying to get rid of him because he’s simply not about team or winning basketball.
Lakers would be better off if he did pull a Wall.
“Westbrook and Ham dapped up before leaving the arena later in the night…”
Lul what
This is the 2nd dust up they’ve had in last couple weeks
Just a thought, but isn’t it possible that some of the Lakers players are just tired of Lebron?
See my comment below. Perhaps that’s why Davis seemed disinterested yesterday. You could be right.
With all of the pomp and circumstance last night, Anthony Davis looked “disinterested”. He made one great play towards the end to save a ball from going out of bounce, but I just thought he was lifeless and didn’t want to be there. Anyone else notice that?
GM BRON BRON is getting just what he deserves with this clown Westclank. He wanted him now deal with him.
This aged poorly! Deal with it.
Buy-out candidate?
Then again, why would Russ agree to that? He’d only get the vet’s min anywhere else for a possible change at a ring while leaving millions on the table in any buy-out. The situation would have to be really toxic for him to agree.
I’m sure he’s tired of being rumored in every trade, especially when LeBron is up there getting interviewed about not getting Kyrie.
You must admit you hear the calliope music in the background. James breaks a record, Westbrook is a horse’s backside yet again, and the Bu**Lickers lose to the Sonics, er, Thunder.
As The Stomach Turns
“Tuesday’s halftime exchange is unlikely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and convinces the Lakers to trade Westbrook,…”
It’s not so much that L.A. is still pondering whether to trade Westbrook or not, it’s just that they cannot find any takers.
That whole thing was an embarrassment for the Lakers. Davis didn’t try. The thunder had a layup line to the basket. They stopped the game for 15 mins before the end of the third quarter for that ridiculous ceremony which should’ve been done after the game. The Thunder showed what they though of that whole debacle and won the game to ruin Bron’s night.
espn knew yall needed something negative to release your frustration at after having to watch LeBron break that historic record lol go ahead & let it out
“I know the answer but don’t think I should say it.”
“Five seconds, Mr. Marsh.”
The Westbrook disrespect is outrageous. Former NBA MVP, most Athletic point guard ever, Olympic champion, All-NBA for many years, and people and Lakers treating his situation like heis aterrible player. Even that, he accepted a sixth man role and played really good this season. LeBron, with themuch respect I have for him, and great milestone achieved, and I really support the guy, but complaining in públic, que because the team don’t acquire KI, is a diss to his teammates.