Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook was not happy with a question about his team’s bench play after a tough 113-109 loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 4.
Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman asked center Steven Adams about the team’s struggles when Westbrook goes to the bench, asking if he felt opponents got an energy boost from seeing the point guard out of the game. Westbrook interrupted Adams to object to the question.
Russell Westbrook goes off on reporter who asks about team's play while he's on the bench pic.twitter.com/oikTf0GxCj
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 23, 2017
“I don’t want nobody trying to split us up,” Westbrook said. “We all one team. If I go to the bench, Steven’s on the floor, if I’m off the floor, we in this together. Don’t try to split us up. Don’t try to make us go against each other, try to make it against Russell and the rest of the guys, Russell against Houston. I don’t want to hear that. We in this together. We played as a team and that’s all that matters. That’s it.”
An obviously agitated Westbrook waved his hands in protest when Tramel tried to address the question to him.
“Say Russell, you ain’t playing well at all. Say Russell and the team haven’t played well,” Westbrook said. “Don’t say when Russell goes out, the team don’t play well. It don’t matter.”
Tramel continued to attempt to get an answer from Westbrook or Adams, but was quickly cut off by the point guard, who refused to answer and demanded to hear the next question.
Westbrook is obviously frustrated. His team is now down 3-1 and is facing elimination, and the truth is, the team is undeniably weaker when he isn’t on the floor. He’s been annoyed before in this postseason, and you can’t really blame him for it, but it was a perfectly legitimate question.
