Tommy Sheppard cleared the record indicating that Russell Westbrook never demanded a trade from the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards traded Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers several hours before the draft in July.
“I really have to make sure the record is straight on that,” Sheppard said in an interview with NBC Sports Washington’s Chris Miller. “Russell actually never asked to move on. He just said, ‘If I can get to the Lakers, that’d be something I would love to do. If not, I’ll be back here.’ I said, ‘What about the Clippers?’ He said, ‘Hell no.’ So Russell was happy being here and we were very grateful for him being here.”
Westbrook reportedly reached out to Kawhi Leonard in 2019 about joining him on the Clippers via trade before it eventually became Paul George moving from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Clippers, for their part, were reportedly not interested in Westbrook this offseason.
