Carmelo Anthony is finally addressing the elephant in the locker room for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaking with the media Tuesday, Anthony admitted that Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook steals rebounds. Here is what he had to say, per Royce Young of ESPN.
Carmelo Anthony on Russell Westbrook’s rebounding, if he “steals” rebounds and if the team cares or not: pic.twitter.com/rtkbAmQjaI
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) April 10, 2018
“For me, it’s good to have a guard like that, being able to crack back and get rebounds,” the former All-Star forward said. “He steals rebounds sometimes, but any time you have a guard like that to come back and rebound the way he does, because we wanna push the break, and when he get it off the rebound, he’s able to jump start the break, and a lot of good things happen from there.
“I don’t think nobody thinks twice about that,” Anthony added when pressed further about Westbrook’s occasional thievery on the glass. “As long as we get the rebound, I don’t think we worried about that. Like individually, we’re not like ‘Damn, I gotta get this rebound. I gotta rebound more.’ As long as we get the rebound, we all cool with that.”
Anthony’s comments come after an 18-rebound performance by Westbrook on Monday against the Miami Heat. The reigning MVP now needs 16 boards in Wednesday’s regular-season finale against the Memphis Grizzlies to average a triple-double for the second straight season. Westbrook currently sits at 9.9 rebounds per game after putting up 10.7 a game last year and has led all non-big men in that category by a wide margin both times.
Of course, the idea that Westbrook may be padding his rebounding numbers has become a running gag of sorts in NBA circles, and now Anthony is leaving little doubt that that is at least partially the case.
