National Basketball Association

Dame advises Westbrook to 'face the music,' says criticism is 'overboard'

Published Mar. 28, 2022 7:11 p.m. ET

Damian Lillard has some advice for Russell Westbrook.

The Portland Trail Blazers' superstar joined Shannon Sharpe on a new episode of "Club Shay Shay" and revealed what advice he would give to the struggling Los Angeles Lakers guard on how to deal with criticism.

"If I had to tell him anything, I would just tell him [to] face the music," Lillard said bluntly. "The criticism, it's gonna happen. You're playing in one of the biggest markets, so I would just face it. … Deal with it.

"Russell Westbrook's career and legacy is undeniable. That's just the bottom line. The career he's had, what he's accomplished and the things that he's done, nobody else has been able to do it. I don't care if [you're] stat-chasing or whatever people wanna say. If I tried to go every game and get a triple-double for a whole season, I can't do it. And there's a lot of other people that can't do it either."

Damian Lillard to Russell Westbrook: "Face the music"

Damian Lillard talks with Shannon Sharpe about Russell Westbrook's struggles with the Los Angeles Lakers and how he should deal with criticism.

"We're gonna get criticized regardless," Lillard continued. "His may be a little harsher because he's Russell Westbrook, he's playing for the Lakers, he's playing with LeBron [James]. I would just face it and be like, ‘Look, I’m struggling. I'm still working at it. I'm trying to get through it. It might not be what y'all wanna hear.'"

Lillard came to Westbrook's defense even further, saying that he's navigating through an unprecedented situation.

"Sometimes you struggle but because of the situation you're in, the market you play in and the amount of attention you put on everything, it makes everything so much worse. If you actually look at his numbers, there [are] people shooting a worse percentage and there [are] people averaging worse numbers.

"It's easy to kick somebody when they're down. … It's going overboard at this point, in my opinion."

Westbrook's season under the microscope, on arguably the NBA’s biggest stage, has been riddled with shooting woes.

Through 73 games, Westbrook is shooting just 43.9% from the field — including 29.6% from distance — and connecting on 66.6% of his free throw attempts. He's averaging 18.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.2 assists this season.

In March, Westbrook has shot higher than 50% in just four of the Lakers' 14 games. He did only once in eight February games.