Remember when Russell Westbrook lost his mind during that blowout Thunder victory over the Grizzlies? It happened about two weeks ago, on January 31st, after he was whistled for a seldom-called five second violation in the post. Suddenly, Westbrook became furious with teammate Thabo Sefolosha, who’d poorly timed his cut. Upon being summoned to the bench, he pitched an explosive fit before storming into the locker room in the middle of the third quarter. After the game, he was asked about the incident by TNT’s Craig Sager, who refused to take “it was just a little miscommunication” for an answer. Already perturbed, Russell was in no mood to deal with Sager’s followup questions. Those questions were asked anyway, which resulted in Sager being called “bruh.” Here’s the whole exchange:
Fast forward to Tuesday night. In a 15-point loss to the Jazz, the Thunder have just been out-rebounded 38-26 and turned over 20 times. Curious as to what sort of issues may have been to blame for this unexpected outcome In search of cookie-cutter material for their crappy write ups, the media proceeds to ask their usual questions — “was something missing, or was it something they were doing?” “were you playing too fast?” “what will be the biggest thing you’ll focus on for next game?”
Russell kept it cool for a while — about a minute and 12 seconds, to be precise — but eventually, he decided he’d just about had enough. Utah’s 1280 The Zone has the audio (via @Clintonite33), and I’ve got a transcript (I suggest the audio, as the tone of Westbrook’s voice is kind of crucial to the humor):
Reporter: “Russ, did you guys lose this game or did the Jazz win this game?”
Russ: “What? …bro, what are you talking about, man?”
Reporter: “…………”
Russ: “I’m out man. Y’all niggas trippin’.”
I understand that these media people are simply doing their jobs. BUT, as demonstrated here, they tend to ask some pretty stupid stuff. I was critical of Westbrook’s disrespectful treatment of Sager because I didn’t feel that anything ridiculous had been asked, but in this instance I can’t blame Russell for becoming fed up. He probably should’ve refrained from dropping the racial slur, but hey, that reporter should’ve refrained from asking such a dumb fucking question. I mean obviously, bro, the Jazz won and the Thunder lost. That’s kind of how sports work — one team wins and one team loses.*
