Westbrook, James show signs of chill
They avoid each other at game as trade rumors swirl
LAS VEGAS » For roughly an hour-and-a-half as LeBron James sat baseline at the Lakers’ opener at Summer League in Las Vegas, he was treated to a parade of the elite guests in attendance.
He was quickly greeted by Jerry Stackhouse and James Jones, his former Miami teammates. That was soon followed by his agent Rich Paul, new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham and general manager Rob Pelinka. Baron Davis and Gary Payton II stopped by, as did James’ Laker teammates: Talen Horton-Tucker, Juan ToscanoAnderson, Wenyen Gabriel and Thomas Bryant. Once when Scotty Pippen Jr. spilled out on the baseline after an and-one lay-up, James leapt out of his seat to help hoist him up.
There was one notable exception among the visitors: Russell Westbrook, who sat in the opposite corner of Thomas & Mack Center next to the summer league players, stayed on the far side of James. The two superstar teammates — who as of now are scheduled to play together come October — made no public acknowledgement of one another before Westbrook left the exhibition at halftime.
Westbrook was involved in the team huddles, but never trekked across the gym — and neither did James, who arrived and left from a different entrance on the opposite side of the arena.
It was a frosty scene that’s sure to get people talking — especially since rumors of the Lakers’ interest in trading Westbrook for Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving has heated up in the last week and a half. While reports have only indicated “preliminary” discussions between the teams in doing a deal (teammate Kevin Durant is expected to be traded before the Nets square up with Irving), ESPN’s Bryan Windhorst said on TV that he believed the Lakers would deal Westbrook for Irving “eventually” in a trade still to be determined.
Ham, who has spent about a month on the job, was put in the awkward position of talking Friday night about the camaraderie of his three star players — James, Westbrook and Anthony Davis — during a busy offseason when two of them were under the same roof.
“AD has a newborn on the way — these guys have busy schedules,” Ham said. “Russ is doing his fashion thing. LeBron has a zillion things going on. Absolutely, we’ve been lockand-step in communication. But it’s hard when guys have business outside of basketball. But they do a good job of staying connected in terms of whenever I need them.”
The Lakers have done a good deal of making over their roster already, adding five free agents since June 30. In a media session in Las Vegas, Ham was bullish on how the roster has changed, especially with all five under 30 years old: “I think we’ve gotten younger, I think we’ve gotten faster, I think we’ve gotten hungrier.”
But many questions remain, the biggest of which is Irving. The Lakers finished just 33-49 in their first year of their “Big Three,” and Westbrook expressed discontent about not getting “a fair chance” in Los Angeles.
The Lakers still have a roster spot remaining, but Pelinka foreshadowed at least one big move to come while speaking on the NBA TV broadcast.
“We’re not done,” he said. “We still have more work to do.”