Someone once told Russell Westbrook, “You’re open to criticism.” Despite having a stellar 16-year NBA career, Westbrook bears a lot of the burden for his mistakes.
Thankfully, he has supporters like Oscar Robertson, a 1971 NBA champion. Robertson is worried about the harsh criticism Westbrook gets. Recently, he offered his support and warned Westbrook about the dangers of blame in sports.
Recently, the Sacramento Kings legend hosted the show “All the Smoke,” sharing his belief that some teams have treated Westbrook unfairly during his career. He started, “It’s unfortunate for Westbrook that they’re doing some of these things to him. I think the guy is very valuable to any team he’s with but somehow they wanna blame somebody.”
He added, “Why blame him, the guy’s effective for you. He kept the franchise in Oklahoma going for years. I went out to see him in OKC and I was happy for the guy but I said they’re gonna turn on you.”
Robertson also explained why he issued this warning: “Because they’re gonna expect you to do this every night and if you don’t win they’re gonna blame you. And they did.”
Nicolas Batum defends Russell Westbrook against critics
Last year, Clippers forward Nicolas Batum praised Russell Westbrook and also defended him against critics. Batum believes that people often overlook Westbrook’s skills and treat him unfairly. He said the Clippers were lucky to have Westbrook on their team because he is a great player.
Batum also told critics, “When you talk about Westbrook, it feels like all the other players in the NBA are perfect, nobody else misses shots, and everybody averages 95% from three and 0.2 TPG. I think we focus way too much on the negative of that guy.”
