Future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook officially dropped the curtain on his incredible 18-year NBA career on Wednesday. As you’d expect, many prominent figures in the basketball world heaped praise on Westbrook on his retirement, and Philadelphia 76ers superstar LeBron James was one of them.
James and Westbrook played together on the Los Angeles Lakers, and the former showed respect to the latter in the comment section of his farewell post on Instagram.
“HELLUVA CAREER BRODIE,” James wrote. “HOF next!!”
“HELLUVA CAREER BRODIE!! HOF next!!”
— LeBron on Russell Westbrook’s retirement. 🙌🙏 pic.twitter.com/V6X6erR1PF
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) August 12, 2026
While there was nothing wrong with that message, NBA fans had an issue with the one who sent it. James and Westbrook’s time together as teammates in Los Angeles hadn’t gone according to plan, and fans went off on the 41-year-old for this message.
“Tell LeBron to shut up; he’s the one who ruined the back end of Westbrook’s career,” one fan blamed James for how Westbrook’s career ended.
“N***a ain’t you the one who ruined his career,” another fan accused James of ruining Westbrook’s career.
“Bron got to be the fakest n***a ever,” one called out James for being fake.
“Nah, Bron, when all that drama was happening in LA, you didn’t have Russ back; he thought he could call you his boy smh,” a fan criticized James for not defending Westbrook during their time with the Lakers.
“LeBron and hypocrisy are inseparable,” one fan called James a hypocrite.
While blaming James for how Westbrook’s career has ended might be a bit much, there’s no doubt that things started to go downhill after his move to the Lakers in 2021. Almost everyone on the outside had believed it was a bad idea, and it proved to be the case.
Westbrook entered the 2021 offseason after averaging a triple-double in the 2020-21 season (fourth time in his career) and leading the Washington Wizards to the playoffs. His stock around the NBA was still fairly high at the time, but it was about to come crashing down.
As for the Lakers, they had followed up their NBA title win in 2020 by losing in the first round of the 2021 playoffs and were looking to make a splash that summer. It was reported that James and Anthony Davis pushed the front office to get Westbrook, and they did just that. The Lakers got him and two second-round picks from the Wizards for Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, and a first-round pick.
It was a big move, but there were widespread concerns about how Westbrook would fit next to James and Davis. This didn’t look like a trio that would work well together, but it perhaps went even worse than the doubters could have imagined.
The Lakers went 33-49 in 2021-22 and missed the playoffs. While you could have pointed the finger in a lot of directions, much of the blame was given to Westbrook. There remains this notion that James scapegoated him.
Westbrook would then accept a bench role in 2022-23 as he looked to help the Lakers get back on track. The experiment didn’t last too long, though, as they traded him to the Utah Jazz in February 2023.
Westbrook would finish his Lakers career with averages of 17.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game. Those are solid numbers, but there’s no doubt all parties involved wish this had never happened.
Years later, it was revealed that Westbrook hated James’ fake act with the Lakers. He also shared in 2025 that they hadn’t spoken for a very long time. These certainly aren’t two former co-workers who will be getting together to reminisce about the good old days.
Getting back to James’ message, Westbrook can indeed be proud of what he accomplished. The 37-year-old notably won an MVP, two scoring titles, and three assists titles. To go with that, Westbrook made nine All-Star and nine All-NBA teams. He is also the NBA’s all-time leader with 209 triple-doubles and will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.