Austin Reaves established himself as one of the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest stars throughout the 2022-23 NBA season.
For his troubles, the 25-year-old was rewarded with a four-year, $54 million contract over the summer.
As good of a year as Reaves had with the Lakers last season – that is how bad things were for Russell Westbrook. He was a square peg in a round hole with the organization from the jump, and it culminated in him getting sent away at the NBA Trade Deadline.
In the aftermath of L.A. moving Westbrook, there was a lot of chatter about potential beefs. It seemed like Anthony Davis took a little dig at Westbrook. Same with LeBron James.
So was there bad blood there?
Reaves addressed that matter during an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson this week.
“He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had… I got Covid December of my rookie year in Minnesota. He reached out 3 or 4 times, asked if I need anything, offered to send me stuff.”
Austin Reaves on Russell Westbrook 💯
(via @shobasketball)pic.twitter.com/ZGWv40k74W
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 20, 2023
“He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” Reaves said on a recent episode of the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“As a person, you can’t get much better. I got COVID (in) December of my rookie year in Minnesota. I was stuck in Minnesota for seven days so it was rough. But he reached out three or four times, asked if I need anything, offered to send me stuff, whatever I needed.”
Reaves didn’t stop there, though.
“As a teammate, he was always empowering everybody to really be better or do better,” he added.
“Like you said he gets a bad rep, and I don’t really understand why.”
Reaves has a propensity for keeping it real (as Dillon Brooks learned the hard way), so if he is saying this about Westbrook, you know he means it.
So far this summer Reaves has gotten paid and spent the rest of the offseason partying it up with his girl.
Now this is how you motivate your favorite team. Philadelphia Eagles fans know what they’re doing. https://t.co/2lE0NtK9q0
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 21, 2023
Real budding superstar stuff.
Will Reaves continue to evolve as a player on the court and apply the lessons he learned from Westbrook about being a good teammate off it? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
