LeBron James Reportedly Has ‘No Interest’ In Playing With Russell Westbrook

it was a tough season for the Lakers in Year One with Russell Westbrook, and LeBron James may be hoping there is no Year Two with Westbrook.

“It’s pretty darn clear that Lebron James has seen enough and he has no interest in going another year with Russell Westbrook as his teammate,” ESPN insider Dave McMenamin said on The Lowe Post podcast with Zach Lowe.

This news is interesting on several fronts.

For starters, James took part in a three-way call that also consisted of Westbrook and Anthony Davis during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. The purpose of the call was for the three to renew “their commitment to one another” and vow to make things work, via Haynes.

But along with that, the Lakers are seemingly desperate to try to trade Westbrook — though from the sounds of things, they’ve been getting nowhere. As we’ve relayed, they have repeatedly been linked to Nets star Kyrie Irving, a one-time James teammate with the Cavaliers.

So it’s hard to know what James really thinks of another season with Westbrook. He is wise to stay quiet about it, though. Nobody really knows yet where Westbrook will be playing next season. It very well could be LA. In fact, that seems like the most likely scenario.

Either way, if James isn’t thrilled about that idea, you can hardly blame him. Westbrook proved to be a wildly clunky fit, as the Lakers failed to qualify for even the play-in tournament. 

That was hardly all Westbrook’s fault, of course. James missed 26 games with injuries, and Davis again failed to appear in at least half the team’s games, also again because of injuries. The Lakers also entered last season with the oldest roster in NBA history.

So there were a lot of factors. But in order to start contending again, the Lakers likely will have to move Westbrook, most people seem to believe. And it now appears you can count LeBron among them.