Getty Lakers guard Russell Westbrook.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost again, this time to the Minnesota Timberwolves by a final score of 124-104.
That wasn’t the main story to come out of the game, though.
Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook, who finished with 15 points while shooting 5-of-12 from the field and 1-of-4 from beyond the arc, was brutally disrespected by Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley, who called him “trash” in front of the Los Angeles bench. Take a look:
“He’s trash. TRASH”
*holds nose*
PatBev at the Lakers bench 🤣
Westbrook and Beverley are fierce rivals. They don’t like each other and there’s always a tense moment involved whenever their teams play ever since what happened in 2013 when Westbrook was on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Beverley was on the Houston Rockets.
Westbrook-Beverley Rivalry Started in 2013
During a Thunder-Rockets game in 2013, Westbrook was dribbling the ball toward his bench to call a timeout when Beverley went for a steal and took out the one-time MVP’s knee, which led to a meniscus tear and multiple knee surgeries.
Since then, Westbrook and Beverley have gotten into several tussles and verbal back-and-forths. The most notable burn came from Westbrook on November 13, 2019, when he was on the Rockets and Beverley was on the Los Angeles Clippers.
After the Rockets defeated the Clippers, Westbrook was asked to talk about Beverley’s defense and the UCLA product went off: “Pat Bev trick y’all, man, like he playing defense. He don’t guard nobody, man. He just running around, doing nothing.”
Beverley and Karl-Anthony Towns trolled Westbrook after the Lakers guard air-balled an open 3-pointer during the LA-Minnesota game. Westbrook was asked to talk about that during his postgame media session and he didn’t mince words.
Westbrook: ‘Nobody over There Has Done Anything in This League’
Westbrook is a nine-time All-Star and one-time MVP and will be in the Hall of Fame one day, which is why he didn’t care about the Timberwolves’ antics.
“Nobody over there has done anything in this league that would make me pick my eyes up, like, ‘Oh, they’re talking mess. Let me respond.’ No. It’s fine. They’re good,” Westbrook said. “They won the game. Happy for them. Move onto the next one.”
The Lakers and Westbrook are likely headed for a divorce this offseason. It will be interesting to see where the veteran plays next season, but we can probably rule out the Timberwolves.