Russell Westbrook’s Complicated Homecoming

LAWNDALE, Calif. — “Go dwelling,” Russell Westbrook yelled at a heckler seated behind the gamers’ bench. “Go dwelling,” he repeated.

The gang at this late-February blowout to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans had turned quick. The boos and taunts have been so dangerous that Mr. Westbrook’s Los Angeles Lakers teammates seemed able to confront followers within the first row. LeBron James acquired right into a sideline debate with one trash talker, whereas Trevor Ariza needed to be bodily restrained from confronting one other.

“You’re not Kobe, you’re not Kobe,” a fan slurred, mentioned Michael Morales, who filmed the courtside change on the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles.

Drunk folks yelling is regular. Athletes yelling again isn’t — particularly at followers in seats that run $3,500 a pop.

“I’m a die-hard Laker fan,” mentioned Mr. Morales, a 38-year-old postal employee who drives throughout city after each shift, coming to extra video games than Jack Nicholson and posting close-up clips that may earn him 1000’s of {dollars} on Fb Reels. However “proper now,” he mentioned, “it’s onerous to observe.” Mr. Morales’s ache, and further earnings, will finish quickly: On Tuesday evening, after a loss to Phoenix, the Lakers have been eradicated from the postseason.

Mr. Westbrook joined the Lakers final July, after stints on the Houston Rockets and Washington Wizards marred by damage and a case of Covid, in a blockbuster commerce that introduced him to the staff he grew up idolizing.

Although his efficiency this season has made him the goal of offended followers, a lot of Mr. Westbrook’s off-court life appears to be thriving. There’s a revealing new Showtime movie, a Historical past Channel documentary, a current artwork ebook, a clothes line with a brand new assortment, together with an academic basis and neighborhood involvement that belies his temperamental picture.

All of that ought to come as no shock to many who’ve adopted his profession or been concerned with it. “He is aware of the way to be a star,” mentioned Simon Doonan, who spent three many years as Barneys New York’s inventive director.

Mr. Doonan, now a decide on the TV present “Making It,” calls previous collections with Mr. Westbrook the place he “chosen materials, engaged on and approving designs,” and shot movies collectively, “probably the most enjoyable I’ve had in my profession.”

However whereas Mr. Westbrook’s off-court life is stuffed with successes, his basketball season has been so rocky that the hometown devoted have turned on the Los Angeles native — a lot in order that his spouse just lately tweeted that the household had been despatched “demise needs.” The previous Laker Shaquille O’Neal has suggested slowing down, and he’s even been benched and shopped in commerce talks.

Mr. Westbrook has reacted to the boos and taunts of “Westbrick” with defiance; chatting with a pool of reporters after the Pelicans loss, he mentioned, “I acquired three lovely youngsters at my home, my spouse, I ain’t taking it dwelling.”

However simply days later, in a postgame interview, he shifted, saying that the taunts had gotten to him, alluding to extra essential issues than basketball, a revelation that was an identical vein to the Showtime movie, “Ardour Play,” by which he’s introspective in a means that may nonetheless be unusual amongst skilled athletes. “The best way I compete has made me a simple goal,” he says within the movie, nearly as if there are two Russells. “Within the sports activities world, I’m the dangerous man. Folks don’t actually perceive who I’m. I’ll be mendacity to say it didn’t have an effect on me.”

The Return

Born in Lengthy Seashore, Calif., Mr. Westbrook grew up in Hawthorne, close to South Central Los Angeles, went to highschool in Lawndale, then spent two years in Westwood on the College of California, Los Angeles. He entered the N.B.A. in 2008 and instantly turned identified for his fiery play and vogue sense.

Within the Nineteen Seventies, the New York Knicks star Walt “Clyde” Frazier launched player-endorsed sneakers, mink coats, Zorro hats and capes. Twenty years later, Dennis Rodman raised the bar, as soon as sporting a marriage gown to a ebook signing. Within the social media period, Mr. Westbrook has turned the world tunnel right into a pregame catwalk.

Being 6-foot-3 means he can store off the rack, however he not often performs it secure, preferring vivid patterns or, say, a white kilt on the Thom Browne spring 2022 present — daring statements within the hyper-macho sports activities world.

He has embraced his position as vogue star with vigor, spending vogue weeks in New York, Paris and Milan with the likes of Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, Raymond Pettibon and Tim Coppens.

“You wouldn’t wish to get in his means on the courtroom. In individual, he’s completely totally different,” mentioned Anthony Petrillose, the affiliate writer of Rizzoli New York, which printed “Russell Westbrook: Type Drivers,” with cowl artwork by Mr. Pettibon. “The expertise was, ‘I’m right here to be taught, I would like the absolute best ebook — how can we do it?’”

Honor the Present, Mr. Westbrook’s vogue model, has completed pop-ups in Los Angeles and Paris and launched a set earlier this month referred to as the Concrete Jungle. The summer season capsule assortment was a homage to swap meets; final fall, it was a halcyon reimagining of the soul soundtrack to rising up in Hawthorne.

“Russell takes vogue each bit as severely as he does being a degree guard,” mentioned Ms. Wintour, who final noticed him in November at Madison Sq. Backyard, the place he “generously introduced me together with his sneakers postgame. They have been slightly too giant for me, however happily I used to be with my 6-4 nephew, who fortunately took them.”

However the Lakers misplaced that evening — and Mr. Westbrook seems to be sad on the job. Whereas he’s labored with Nike’s Jordan model on a full-foot system for his footwear, pored over Honor the Present designs, and thoroughly constructed his homecoming, the basketball slot in Los Angeles has been bumpy.

In June of final 12 months, Honor the Present teamed with Jordan and Mr. Westbrook’s Why Not? Basis, constructing a basketball courtroom and sponsoring tech and design workshops at a Y.M.C.A. within the metropolis’s Crenshaw District. (Jordan has produced Westbrook’s signature shoe and Why Not? attire since 2018.) The nonprofit basis, named after a favourite saying, helps social initiatives and faculties.

“Type is a weapon and that doesn’t finish with clothes,” mentioned Sam Sohaili, who runs DMA United, a inventive company that has labored with Mr. Westbrook on model offers. “Russell’s type is how he interacts with folks.”

Such interactions help the two-Russells idea: relishing the villain position, then taking part in reverse. (Regardless of a number of makes an attempt, Mr. Westbrook declined to remark for this text.)

Taking part in in Los Angeles additionally means Hollywood. “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Bloodbath,” which he government produced, premiered final Might and different tasks are in growth.

And simply when he seems to be one other celeb cashing in, he crosses over. Throughout a grueling taking part in interval in December, days after getting into the N.B.A.’s security protocols due to constructive coronavirus assessments within the staff’s touring occasion, then testing detrimental for Covid, Mr. Westbrook donned a Santa hat and grinchy tracksuit, posed for images and gave each Why Not? pupil new sneakers.

“Generally the precedence ain’t what you receives a commission for,” famous the legendary Compton rapper DJ Quik simply earlier than the Lakers have been crushed by the crosstown Clippers in March.

Leuzinger

South of the Crypto.com Enviornment, at Leuzinger Excessive College in working-class Lawndale, one of many first stuff you see is a 50-foot mural of a hovering you-know-who plastered on the Gloria Ramos Cafeteria. Throughout campus, within the Thompson Gymnasium, a well-known identify and jersey quantity grasp above the courtroom the place Mr. Westbrook led the Olympians to a 25-4 report as a senior again in 2006.

“It was inevitable that he’d go to the N.B.A.,” recalled Patrick Cleveland, a highschool teammate who lived down the road from Mr. Westbrook and now coaches and works as a security officer right here.

We spoke simply because the commerce deadline handed and the Lakers determined to not deal Mr. Westbrook. In Lawndale he’s nonetheless a prince of the town who got here up onerous, made good and stayed true.

To grasp the 2 Russells means understanding a tragic what if, mentioned Marlon Mendez, a coach from again within the day and now the college’s athletic director. What if Mr. Westbrook’s finest good friend Khelcey Barrs hadn’t collapsed after a string of pickup video games at Los Angeles Southwest School on Might 11, 2004?

Khelcey was a 6-foot-6 sophomore headed for the N.B.A., till a coronary heart situation ended every part at 16. “All of us had that chip on our shoulder, however Russell took it on,” Mr. Cleveland mentioned. “Everyone thinks he’s this high-energy man. Folks don’t perceive what he performs for. We have been all damage, however he was the one who was in a position to make that identify proceed. I’m grateful Russell made it and carried that identify with him.”

After he died, Mr. Westbrook would stroll throughout the road and do Khelcey’s chores earlier than class. At the moment, he wears wristbands and footwear with the initials KB3, Leuzinger basketball is sponsored by Jordan and the onetime highschool star stays a fixture.

“I grew up round him,” mentioned Amire Jones, a 16-year-old junior and guard from Compton. “At college, video games, Jordan occasions. It’s loopy as a result of an N.B.A. participant went to your faculty and he’s somebody I can attain out to.”

It’s not unusual for Mr. Westbrook to drop in, mentioned Mr. Jones, the son of the Leuzinger coach Arturo Jones, one in every of many formative figures Mr. Westbrook nonetheless leans on. “His legacy offers alternatives for us. He’s uplifting. As soon as I used to be figuring out with him, lacking pictures, he pulled me apart. He mentioned: ‘Confidence, don’t cease. You miss 20, maintain capturing.’”

What about Mr. Westbrook’s personal confidence? The boos?

“There’s numerous negativity round him for no cause,” Mr. Jones mentioned. “He’s going to maintain capturing. He doesn’t care. It’s Russ.”