Washington Wizards: Ted Leonsis’s comments about Russell Westbrook were off-target and misguided

It’s finally official. The Russell Westbrook experience is over in Washington, D.C. after the future Hall of Famer was traded from the Washington Wizards to the Los Angeles Lakers after just one season.

Days before that was official, the Washington Capitals re-signed their own legend, Alex Ovechkin, to a five-year deal, and Wizards/Capitals owner Ted Leonsis made a head-scratching comparison between Ovechkin and Westbrook. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported that Leonsis said the following after the Ovechkin decision.

"“We had a superstar player with the Wizards, he had an opportunity and wanted to be traded to the Lakers…And I was dealing with that as we were announcing Alex. I couldn’t help but self-reflect on what a difference it is. Here’s a great player in Russell Westbrook, played in OKC, wanted to be traded, went to Houston, wanted to be traded, came to D.C., wanted to be traded and is now in L.A. He’s an unbelievably great person and an unbelievably great player. But that’s the difference between the NBA and the NHL, I suppose.”"

There seems to be a flurry of emotions bubbling under the surface of this statement. Leonsis is obviously happy that the Capitals get to keep their iconic, all-time great franchise player, and Stanley Cup champion for the duration of his career. However, he makes an odd parallel between the NBA and the NHL. They are two completely different sports that rely on totally different infrastructures. The NBA is a player-oriented market with global appeal that continues to grow. The NHL is watched primarily by people in North America and has more player personnel to deal with on a nightly basis, not to mention a less dynamic economy.

Then we have Leonsis bringing up a player in a different sport who played for just one year in D.C., and somehow he thinks it’s appropriate to compare him to another player in another sport who played in D.C. for17 years and won a championship. The only equivalence between the two is that both deals occurred in the same general timeframe. Their relationships to this city, and the teams that play there, are much different.

Ted Leonsis should stay hush on Russell Westbrook after the trade. His comments have not done the Washington Wizards any favors.

While these comments could be twisted, misconstrued, and boiled down to hot-take talking points, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Leonsis wasn’t knowingly malicious in his statement. To me, he sounds like he wanted to keep Westbrook and Bradley Beal together, hoping to build them up as cornerstones for the future. The comparison to Ovechkin is misguided on several fronts since Westbrook didn’t have much of a team surrounding him when he came to Washington. They didn’t have a consistent starting lineup, no threat in the low-post, only one other legitimate scoring threat in Beal, and a horrendous display of coaching (particularly on defense). None of these factors is Russell Westbrook’s fault. Meanwhile, the Capitals have been a perennial playoff team

Yet Ted Leonsis seems to paint Westbrook (whether intentionally or not) as a journeyman, a hired gun at the point position, someone who had an opportunity to build something in D.C. but decided to ship out just as he had in OKC, then Houston, and now to Hollywood. He did go on to say that Westbrook is a great person and a great player, which everybody already knows. But dissecting this statement seems to reveal a frustration Leonsis has with the state of DC sports in general.

The Wizards had an opportunity to have not one, but two big box-office draws, AND they were projected to have a winning record. A scoring machine in Beal and the walking triple-double in Westbrook in the same backcourt spelled good times ahead. But, because of a slew of injuries, the pandemic, and overall terrible coaching, it took a superhuman effort from none other than Russell Westbrook to get the Wizards to even sniff the postseason. In just one regular season, he shattered the franchise record for career triple-doubles with 38. They only got one playoff victory as consolation. Throw all that in with the Capitals’ plateauing over the past few years, the state of DC sports is looking precarious. Ted Leonsis is partly to blame for that.

The bottom line is Westbrook wanted a trade because he has an opportunity to cement himself as one of the five greatest point guards ever if he wins a championship with LeBron. Frankly, given his monstrous contract, the Wizards weren’t going to attract any stars with Russ at the helm. Why waste those years not being competitive when another opportunity presents itself? Leonsis seems disappointed Westbrook wanted to leave. But if there’s anything the front office should be disappointed about, it’s what they got in return for the former MVP.

They got a good shooter in KCP, a former Sixth Man of the Year buried on the Lakers’ bench in Harrell, and an aloof, underperforming roleplayer in Kuzma. All three of these guys combined don’t make up for half of what Westbrook does on the court. Now, the Wizards have to deal with the potential of diminishing returns from another rag-tag lineup under a rookie head coach. The situation wasn’t ideal, but the outcome seems to be less so. Hopefully, I’m wrong.

Regardless, the statement from Ted Leonsis about Westbrook was off-target at best and misguided at worst. The statement seems to turn the attention from him and his management to a player who simply saw an opportunity for better success in the short term.