Russell Westbrook’s time with the Lakers was far from a success, and in the end he was traded away.

But he still has at least one big fan at the Lakers, and his name is Austin Reaves.

Speaking on a recent episode of the All The Smoke podcast, Reaves raved about Westbrook as a person and teammate.

“He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had,” Reaves told co-hosts 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 either.

“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.”

Of course, Westbrook’s bad publicity was more related to his on the court misdemeanours.

But listening to Reaves speak, it sounds like Westbrook is much harder to fault off the court.

New Twist Emerges in Damian Lillard Trade Saga

Damian Lillard joining Miami once felt inevitable, but a new report on the ongoing saga suggests Portland may not even be motivated to trade Dame at all.

Here’s the latest from Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald:

“Someone even told me — and I thought this was interesting, but I don’t even know if I buy it 100% — but someone that has knowledge of what’s going on is convinced that Portland doesn’t even want to trade Damian Lillard at this point,” Chiang said on the Heat Check podcast.

“It almost feels like they’re trying to find a way to change his mind or delay this where Damian will say “Well, I’ll just be part of this.”

Then again, Portland would say that in an attempt to gain some leverage, even if they knew they would have to trade Lillard eventually.

Of course, a lot of these comments that get leaked to the media are all a part of the game.

Only time will tell what’s real, and what’s just spin.