"I am going to show you I can win with the guy nobody else wants to win with" - Skip Bayless on LeBron James' motive behind teaming up with Russell Westbrook
LeBron James and Russell Westbrook have been making headlines quite often in the last few days. The two LA Lakers superstars were recently spotted at a 2021 NBA Summer League game, creating a lot of buzz among fans.
James also took to Instagram to post pictures of himself and Westbrook working out together. The series of images also featured Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy.
The post went viral on social media, and a major reason behind that was LeBron James' caption. The 36-year-old taunted critics who questioned Russell Westbrook's fit in the LA Lakers team, saying:
"work with Brodie! I agree, I don't think this will work."
It remains to be seen how the latest 'Big Three' in the NBA, comprising LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, will work together, with two months to go before the 2021-22 NBA season kicks off.
Skip Bayless says LeBron James wants to prove that he can win alongside Russell Westbrook, something other superstars failed to do
Popular sports columnist and TV personality Skip Bayless had an interesting take on LeBron James' Instagram post.
Speaking on his own show, 'Skip and Shannon: Undisputed', Bayless stated that James is motivated to show everyone that he can win with Russell Westbrook, something other superstars like Kevin Durant and James Harden were unable to do.
Here's what Bayless said:
"He (LeBron) used the sarcastic line "I agree I don't think this will work"... we all know he's saying to Russ, no we are going to show it will work. Because it wouldn't work with Kevin Durant and then it didn't work with James Harden and it never quite worked with Paul George... There was even the ESPN report that... Russ is trying to call Kawhi, "take me to the Clippers with you" and he wouldn't even return his calls. So I named four great players: KD, James Harden, Paul George and Kawhi all did not want to play with Russ."
"So you don't think LeBron's saying, "Watch this," it's part of this potential successful story of next year, that I am going to show you I can with the guy nobody else wants to win with and couldn't win with."
As Bayless mentioned, Russell Westbrook hasn't had a successful stint playing alongside many great players. That could change, though, because LeBron James is known to gel well with superstar-level talent on the same roster. A great example of that would be Anthony Davis, who the Lakers acquired in 2019. He won the NBA championship in his first season with the team.
The LA Lakers are second on the oddsmakers' list of favorites to win the NBA title next season (behind the Brooklyn Nets). If they do win, it will be the first NBA championship of Russell Westbrook's career.
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