Russell Westbrook blames Frank Vogel – and everyone else – for his Lakers struggles

Russell Westbrook said he believes former Lakers coach Frank Vogel had an issue with him throughout Los Angeles’ losing season.

In his end-of-season press conference Monday, Westbrook called his relationship with Vogel “unfortunate,” and said he felt as though he had to constantly prove himself in his debut season with the team.

“I’m not sure what his issue was with me, or I’m not sure why. I can’t really give you an answer why we never really connected,” Westbrook said.

“That’s something that he has to answer… from the get-go, was feeling like I had to try and prove myself to him, and my capabilities and what I’ve been able to do for this game. It’s unfortunate, but it’s out of my hands.”

The Lakers fired Vogel Monday after finishing the season with a 33-49 record, failing to make the play-in tournament.

Westbrook struggled offensively for most of his debut season with the Lakers. The 33-year-old averaged 18.5 points per game – his lowest since his second season in the league in 2009-10. His outside shooting struggles earned him the name “Westbrick” by fans and his wife Nina said their family received death wishes over her husband’s performance.

“When I first got here and just being a person that, unfortunately, people create narratives of me and who I am and what I do, what I believe in that are just not true,” Westbrook said. “I’m always having to, like, prove myself again year after year after year which is, to me, just unfair, there’s really no reason I have to do that. So, when I first got here, I just felt that I never was given a fair chance just to be who I needed to be to be able to help this team.” 

Westbrook admitted that it wasn’t his best season, and said he “embraced every change,” while sacrificing for the team.

“There were conversations, where I may have felt like what I bring to this team, and my abilities to better help the team win may not been in the cards of kind of how the coach wanted to play… I knew coming here, I would have to make the bigger sacrifice of anywhere [in any situation in my career],” Westbrook said. “I’m big on putting a ton of pressure on myself coming into any situation. Just my play in general, not my best season, just going off my own personal scale because that’s the only thing I go off of regardless of the season.

“I know that a lot of people outside of here and media, whatever that may be, have their own expectations of how they see I’m supposed to play or what numbers I’m supposed to put up, but for me personally, I put myself on a very, very high scale and, yeah, I’m not happy with the way the season prevailed from that perspective.” But I felt better with the way I ended playing and getting a better rhythm of just me personality and how I felt about my game.”

Westbrook — who is the highest-paid player on L.A.’s roster, earning $44 million — has a $47 million player option for the 2022-23 season, which he said he is currently undecided on.

Last week, Marc Stein reported that the Hornets are a “team to watch” as a trade destination for the former league MVP. The Athletic on Monday mentioned the Pacers as a possible destination for Westbrook.