Oklahoma City Thunder: Why the criticism of Russell Westbrook isn’t about on-court performance

Exploring why the criticism of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook has more to do with a contentious media relationship than his on-court performance

"The central issue has become this: If Westbrook is going to miss 64 percent of his shots and lose his matchup in the playoffs, where will any of this lead? How many minor wins on the margins are necessary if the center cannot hold?"

Ben Golliver of the Washington Post said this in regards to who is to blame for the Oklahoma City Thunder losing their third straight first-round playoff series. However, one can argue that the criticism surrounding the play of Russell Westbrook is directly related to his contentious relationship with the media.

Russell has developed a reputation among NBA media members of being one of the hardest players to deal with on a daily basis. A prime example of this is how Westbrook uses the phrase “next question” to avoid talking about topics that he does not want to discuss at the current moment.

For instance, on March 16th of this year, Russell Westbrook received his 16th technical foul of the regular season during a home game against the Golden State Warriors, meaning that he was suspended for the next game.

After the game, multiple reporters asked him to give his thoughts on the 16th technical, and he replied with the phrase next question until the conclusion of the post-game scrum. This approach makes it difficult for reporters to do their jobs as they are supposed to give fans insight into the mindset of players.

As a consequence, reporters look for ways to jab and/or get back at Russell Westbrook for how he treats them regularly. For instance, Thunder beat writer Royce Young applauded CJ McCollum for having such thoughtful answers during the post-game press conference after Game 4:

"This was such an insightful, thoughtful answer. When you gripe and wonder why they do this media stuff at all, it’s because some players choose to engage in it like CJ here."

If Russell Westbrook were more engaging with the media, he would receive significantly less criticism about his game as there are other superstars who’ve experienced some regression on the downside of their career. For instance, LeBron James saw a decline in his 3-point shooting and free throw percentages during his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron shot 33.9 percent from behind the arc and 66.5 percent from the charity stripe this season. This is a decrease of 2.9 and 6.6 percent in those respective categories from the previous season.

The decrease is right on par with Westbrook as Russell shot 29 percent from behind the arc and 65.6 percent from the charity stripe this season. This is a decrease of 0.8 and 8.1 percent in those respective categories from the previous season.

Fortunately for LeBron, his willingness to answer most media questions contributed to the lack of coverage about the regression in certain areas of his game. Bryan Curtis of the Ringer showcased one example of LeBron’s interactions with the media during a press conference on the day off between Games 3 and 4 of the 2018 NBA Finals:

"James’s eyes were lit up like they were in the season-opening session when he talked about Donald Trump. With the Finals all but over, James was loose. He said everybody knew Kevin Durant would be great “besides Portland”; that the people who thought he should drive to the rim on every play were imagining a video game LeBron with fatigue and injuries turned “all the way down to zero.” For a guy who usually insists on talking about the present, he was willing to offer perspective."

The press conference allowed reporters to give fans insight on how LeBron felt about on a multitude of on and off the court topics. This type of insight limits the on-court criticism he receives from the media because they do not want to risk losing access to him.

Consequently, whenever his teams have a terrible stretch of games, the supporting cast gets picked apart by the media. Current free agent Trevor Ariza echoed a similar sentiment when he spoke to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report last December:

"The media should change the narrative. Make that superstar be a superstar.” In other words, don’t automatically blame the supporting cast when a team falls short. Sometimes it’s the superstar who fell short."

In conclusion, if Russell Westbrook had been more cooperative with the media during the early years of his career, you have to wonder whether he would be receiving significantly less criticism right now.