Outside of losing yet another winnable game against the Houston Rockets, the big story from yesterday's Thunder game was the news that Russell Westbrook is still not a fan of The Oklahoman's sports scribe Boomer Tramel.
In case you missed it, Boomer led the post-game press conference with a question to Steven Adams about why the team sucks so bad when Russ leaves the court. Russ then pulled a Mack Brown and answered the question for Steven. Well, I guess he really didn't answer it. He just lectured the media. Dak Prescott seemed to like it:
Was that a fair question? Yes. Was it also stupid question? Double Yes! Seriously, why ask a player a question if you already know the answer? Anyone with two eyes, including Jenni Carlson, can see why the Thunder struggles when Russ goes to the bench. It's because the rest of the team sucks! They're garbage! They have a few nice role players in Adams, Gibson and Oladipo, but that's it. Did Berry Tramel really think that Steven Adams would give an honest answer?
"Well, you know, mate, we're kind of a disjointed, incomplete mess when Russ comes off the court. We're filled with flaws. Our primary bench scorer is so awful on defense that he we have to limit his minutes during the postseason, and since we don't have an NBA-caliber point guard to run any semblance of an offense when Russ is off the court, we struggle to score. Thanks KD!"
Stupid questions with obvious answers aside, Russ totally overreacted. Berry probably already had a column written about how bad the team is when Russ goes to the bench, and simply needed a generic quote from someone not named Russ to insert somewhere. Steven's a big boy. He knows how to B.S. his way through a dumb question. Russ is already a ball hog on the court. He doesn't need to let that attitude bleed over into press conferences.
Naturally, Berry led with the exchange in his column about the game.
Russell Westbrook didn't like the question, even though it wasn't asked of him...
I asked Steven Adams what keeps happening for the few but deadly moments when OKC has to play without its superstar.
Westbrook intercepted the question, didn't let Adams answer and lectured the media — I don't think it was anything personal toward me — on creating divisions within the team. “I don't want nobody to try to split us up.”
Uhm, you don't think it's anything personal toward you? LOL. It's 100% personal! I don't know if it's the arrogance, haircut, or folksy drawl, but Russ likes Berry Tramel about as much as he does passing the ball when it won't lead to an assist.
Remember this?
Back when that happened, Berry responded with a long article that was quickly pulled from NewsOK.com, and then replaced with an edited, toned-down response. Here's the unedited remarks that The Oklahoman and Thunder Ministry of Propaganda want wiped from the Internet...
I don’t particular care if Russell Westbrook doesn’t like me, especially since he doesn’t know me. I don’t particularly care if he respects me, since I’m quite sure he has no idea what I do. But I do wish Westbrook would respect the process.
I understand that athletes can be driven nuts by the repetitive nature of the season and the media. The league requires these guys to be available to the press after every practice and every game. The Thunder tries to shield the stars as much as possible, asking that the media give them a day or two break when possible, and in Oklahoma City, we mostly cooperate.
When Russell Westbrook says “good execution” to every question, what he’s really saying to the fans is, “I don’t like you.”
1. On the topic of "respecting the process," maybe Berry should follow his own advice and pass along the mic instead of whining like an entitled baby when someone dodges his question! What a tool! He sounded like a tattle tale ratting on some classmate for drawing on a desk. Let the other reporters ask their own dumb questions, marble mouth!
2. Russell seems to like the fans just fine. Trust me on this, it's Berry Trammel he doesn't like. If the "I don't like you," wasn't clear enough, there's also this...
And this...
And this clip from Tuesday where he "accidentally" bounced a basketball of Berry's noggin...
Actually, the clip of Russ losing control of the basketball won't embed, so I just posted the clip of Boomer talking about how single women should remain sexually pure and virtuous out of respect to their future husbands. Maybe Russ and him should try hugging it out? That would be the virtuous thing to do.
