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With each passing day, we have a new wrinkle to add to the Los Angeles Lakers and Russell Westbrook saga.
We all knew this was going to happen. No matter how many positive vibes come out of either camp, neither Westbrook nor the Lakers can shake the feeling of inevitability surrounding their potential divorce.
For our newest wrinkle in this saga, we need to turn our attention to Las Vegas. During the Lakers’ opening game of Summer League against the Phoenix Suns, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook were both in attendance, but according to footage from the game, the pair chose to stay on opposite ends of the building.
“There was one notable exception among the visitors: Russell Westbrook, who sat in the opposite corner of Thomas & Mack Center next to the summer league players, stayed on the far side of James…Westbrook was involved in the team huddles, but never trekked across the gym – and neither did James, who arrived and left from a different entrance on the opposite side of the arena…It was a frosty scene that’s sure to get people talking,” Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register wrote on July 8, as he detailed the scene.
LeBron ‘Wants Kyrie in Lakerland’
It’s fair to assume that part of the frostiness between LeBron and Westbrook stems from the former’s insistence on trading for Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets – a move that would almost certainly involve Westbrook heading in the opposite direction.
In a July 3 edition of his newsletter, Marc Stein noted how LeBron has been the driving force behind Los Angeles’ rumored interest in the Nets’ star ball-handler.
“I know Irving has been in Los Angeles this week, but that’s not the source of my confidence. It stems from repeated rumbles in circulation that LeBron James is rooting hard for Irving’s addition to the roster.
James, I’m told, wants to see Irving in Lakerland more than anyone. What other team, furthermore, has a LeBron-sized personality with the experience to cope with all the chaos that comes with adding Kyrie? James, remember, has often thrived in chaos,” Stein wrote.
It’s hard to believe that Westbrook isn’t aware of LeBron’s preference to see him traded for his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, and that likely played a part in the two keeping their distance in Las Vegas.
Lakers ‘Yet to be Aggressive’ in Chasing Irving
Despite LeBron championing for his former teammate to become a Laker, the front office have yet to reaffirm their interest in acquiring Irving via trade. According to a July 4 report from ESPN’S Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers’ ‘are yet to be aggressive’ in trade talks.
“Similar to Durant, I think there’s a very slow-moving market right now…The Lakers have yet, I’m told, to be aggressive, in trying to put a deal together to get him from Brooklyn. That may come, that may evolve with time. But so far right now, there’s no traction with deals for Irving or Durant…There’s a lot of time left in this off-season,” Wojnarowski explained while appearing on Inside the NBA.
With the Lakers seemingly dragging their heels on acquiring Irving, there is a very real possibility LeBron and Westbrook will be teaming up again next season, meaning how they move past their current frostiness could be very interesting – especially for a Lakers team that wants to make a swift return to the post-season.
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