Russell Westbrook's Tired Of Being Teased

The Lakers lost again last night, and this time it came with Russell Westbrook steering the ship and LeBron on the sidelines. Despite his increased role, Westbrook disappointed Lakers fans all night, and he decided post-game he would no longer accept the 'Westbrick' nickname. He and his family have had enough.

"I think, for one, 100% stand behind my wife and how she's feeling because it's not about just this year," Westbrook said. "Right now, she's reached a point where it's really weighing on them and it's very unfortunate just for me personally because this is just a game. This is not end all be all. When it comes to basketball, I don't mind the criticism of missing and making a shot. But the moment it becomes where my name is getting shamed, it becomes an issue. I've kind of let it go in the past because it never really bothered me."

And here's where the story gets absurd.

"It really hit me the other day," Westbrook continued. "Me and my wife were at the teacher-parent conference for my son, and the teacher told me, Noah is so proud of his name, he writes it everywhere. He tells everyone 'I'm Westbrook'...I kind of sat there in shock it hit me. I can no longer allow people, for example, Westbrick to me is now shaming, shaming my name and my legacy for my kid. It's a name that means more to me, my wife, my mom, my dad, and the ones that paved the way for me."

This has to be the most ridiculous development of Russ' season. First, he was asked last week if this season was considered a disappointment as the Lakers are currently set to participate in a play-in despite their championship aspirations earlier in the year. He pretended to have no expectations on the campaign whatsoever after joining LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the purple and gold. Seemed relatively obvious the expectation should've been to win, considering it's the only reason the LeBron asked ownership to bring him to town. Otherwise what was the point of LeBron overriding management to get him there?

Secondly, this story Westbrook gave us about his son at school is complete bologna. Russ telling us a story of his son being proud of his name as to why we should stop calling him Westbrick is equivalent to when people used to say their child asked why Trump was so mean. Oftentimes, people weaponize their children to control outside forces, and that's exactly what's at work here.

If the nine-time All-Star wants people to ditch the name calling as if that suddenly qualifies as "bullying," he better start playing better. And now that reports have surfaced that the Lakers and Russ have already discussed getting him out of town this offseason, he has only a couple months left in LA anyway. We won't hear his name or any of these phony stories when he ultimately gets traded to the Orlando Magic for role players. Spare us with the sulk stories meant to extinguish the criticism.