LOS ANGELES — Why not?
That’s famously Russell Westbrook’s slogan, right? The genesis of it, he told USA Today once, came back during high school, when he and his friends “were just doing a lot of dumb stuff …” like, say, “‘Let’s run in the middle of the street.’ ‘Why not?’”
OK, kids, let me tell you why not: It’s dangerous. Please don’t do that.
Now, Clippers, let me tell you why not: Westbrook would play in every game he’s able to, and he’ll play hard. Always admirable, especially in an era when minutes are managed with extreme caution – but he wouldn’t help your defense, he wouldn’t hit many shots, and he wouldn’t engender affection from your fans. Even here, in L.A., where he’s from. We just saw that movie.
But kids? Kids are dumb. They’re kids. They don’t know any better.
The Clippers are run by fully grown executives, experienced and savvy and above big-name chasing. They know not to go playing in the middle of the street – they just had a front-row seat for the wreckage wrought on those Lakers’ streets in the past year and a half.
If Clippers fans are smug about the fact that their team flipped Mike Muscala for Ivica Zubac back in 2019, Lakers fans would be insufferable watching the Clippers try to make Russ happen in 2023.
Honestly I have to admit it: I gotta fill this out https://t.co/zYe2668UFK pic.twitter.com/f1cQOCMtBp
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) February 9, 2023
Already, Lakers fans have never been so happy to have been proven wrong, never so thrilled to be filling out faux apology forms on social media directed to Rob Pelinka, who, it seems, might have proven his critics wrong.
Why? The Lakers finally reached the end of their rope with Westbrook, agreeing to trade him, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damian Jones to the Utah Jazz in exchange for D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt, with Mike Conley going to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
What’s more, Pelinka negotiated sending…
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