Tuesday 05th November 2024,
The Hoop Doctors

Russell Westbrook Pissed That Charlie Villanueva Interrupted Pregame Routine

Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Cameron Payne have a pregame routine. It’s extensive and elaborate and borders on interpretive dance. And it’s important to them.

On Monday night, ahead of the Dallas Mavericks’ surprise win over the Thunder, Charlie Villanueva didn’t care. He interrupted the pregame ritual of Oklahoma City’s point guards, per Royce Young of ESPN.com:

Westbrook, as you can see, is clearly pissed. He shoves Villanueva and Mavericks rookie Justin Anderson out of the way. The two were clearly playing mind games, which didn’t appeal to Westbrook.

He admitted as much afterward, too:

To Anderson’s credit, he did actually log 14 minutes in Game 2. So he played. Charlie Villanueva, however, did not play.

Anyhow, this seems like it should be something that goes unspoken, but interrupting Westbrook’s pre-tip jitterbug-ing is a bad idea.

Then again, maybe not it’s not that bad of an idea.

The Mavericks won.

And Westbrook shot an unimpressive 8-of-22 from the floor.

So maybe he and Payne should make it a goal to stage their dance-off before Game 3 somewhere that won’t encourage, um, opponent participation.

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