Magic Johnson Has A Harsh Message For The Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers put an end to their spell. For now. They beat the Golden State Warriors and it was great. Of course, things didn’t go well for everyone. Russell Westbrook hit just 20 points in the night. Lakers legend Magic Johnson has been watching the team lately, and he has a message for his Lakers fellows. Yes, the Hall-of-Famer delivered a bold warning about Westbrook. Hopefully, the nine-time All-Star should take accountability and do his job.

Johnson was once a director of basketball operations in LA. He knows how things roll in LA. One thing stands for sure, Johnson is far from happy with the situation in LA. The Lakers have had too many struggles this season. Their offseason makeover didn’t really work. Westbrook is a clear example of that. How will the Lakers handle this problem?

“Quit battling the press,” Magic told the media. “Take ownership and accountability and say, ‘Hey, I haven’t played well but I got a chance to turn it around.’ So I’m tired of excuses, it’s time to take ownership and say, ‘I’ve just been playing poorly but hopefully I can turn it around.’”

We couldn’t agree more.

Magic Johnson has a motivational message for the Lakers veteran

Westbrook doesn’t pay much attention to heckling fans but he sure pays a lot of attention to the comments made by media members. We all know that Broddie likes to get into a thing with the media. We have seen it before.

 “Young man, you gotta know there was expectations when you call LeBron and Anthony Davis and said you wanted to be a Laker,” Johnson said, “You saw Kobe Bryant play and win all those championships. And Kobe said you were the guy. So you know you had to come here knowing that it’s about championships when you put the purple and gold on.”

Magic Johnson did not hold back on the state of the Lakers this season:

“[Russell Westbrook] quit battling the press, take ownership and accountability. … I’m tired of excuses, it’s time to take ownership and say ‘I just been playing poorly’.” pic.twitter.com/PHJHpZ7HN7

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 6, 2022

Will Westbrook pay attention to this? He went through a lot lately and we have a few good reasons to believe that he will part ways with the franchise this offseason. Rob Pelinka didn’t trade him in February. Will he trade him in the summer?

ESPN Sources: There’s an increasing push among many in the Lakers organization to demote nine-time All-Star Russell Westbrook from the starting lineup, but so far coach Frank Vogel has resisted bringing him off the bench: https://t.co/2CyO729oZW

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 6, 2022

Westbrook doesn’t like his current role.