Russell Westbrook hated LeBron James’ fake behavior. Here are the brutal receipts

Recently, there have been reports of how ugly things got in between Russell Westbrook and LeBron James during their time as teammates with Los Angeles Lakers during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. The team missed the 2022 playoffs entirely and ended up trading Westbrook before next year’s deadline.

Reporting was done by The Ringer’s Yaron Weitzman, and now, more information is coming out about some of Westbrook’s gripes with James.

“I feel like this interview is trying to get me to say something. I can tell you’re in the whole ‘Russell Westbrook category’ right now,” James said after Westbrook’s late mistake cost the Lakers a game against the Portland Trail Blazers. “…You can write about Russ and all the things you want to try to say about Russ, but I’m not here to do that. I’m not going to do that. I’ve said it over and over again. That’s not me.”

However, Weitzman painted a different story, saying that “Westbrook didn’t buy it. To him, this was just the latest example of LeBron saying one thing and doing another.”

“People are saying, ‘Let a Russian be a Russian,'” Westbrook said earlier, in what some interpreted as a shot at James. “I don’t think anyone understands what that means. I think people just say it.”

Westbrook also reportedly grew tired of James’ frequent outright lies to the media, including claiming The Godfather was his favorite movie, pretending to read Malcolm X’s autobiography, claiming he predicted Kobe Bryant would score 81 points that day and more.

“Westbrook knew about LeBron’s reputation. He saw all the examples of LeBron seemingly misrepresenting himself,” Weitzman reported.

Tough time for the Lakers

After the Lakers traded Westbrook in early 2023, they rebounded and went on a borderline miraculous run to the Western Conference Finals that year, but have fallen in the first round in the two seasons since.

Meanwhile, Westbrook has moved up in the league, most recently signing with the Sacramento Kings earlier this week.

Still, Lakers fans won’t soon forget how toxic the vibes were around the team during those two fateful seasons. Who should be blamed clearly remains a topic of debate.