The rivalry between Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook was on full display during the NBA Playoffs. The two had heated battles throughout the series and exchanged plenty of trash talk.
Of course, Lillard hit the game-winning shot in Game 5 to send the Thunder home packing for the summer and even added a wave goodbye for the icing on the cake.
After getting the best of Westbrook and the Thunder, Lillard told reporters that the series was the perfect opportunity for Westbrook to really prove he has dominated Lillard but that wasn’t the case.
Despite all of the back-and-forth between the two All-Stars, Lillard cleared the air Friday morning in an interview on The Dan Patrick Show and said he and Westbrook are actually friends off of the court.
Now that the series is over, it was funny to me that people wanted to make it like such a negative thing between us. Me and Russ are really cool off of the court. But when we get on the court, I don’t expect anything else from him and he doesn’t expect anything else from me. There’s no dislike.
I’m just telling you what the truth is. On the court, I’ll talk trash to him and he’ll talk trash to me. He rocked the baby and Dennis Schroder tapped his wrist [imitating Dame Time] and all of that stuff [but] that’s all trash talk; that’s not dislike. Everyone was trying to turn it into us not liking each other and all of that stuff when we’re actually cool. Now that the series is over, I’m just making that clear.
Lillard and Westbrook are two of the most competitive players in the league and are some of the rare ones that don’t often talk to the opposition. They can separate their on-the-court battle from their friendship off of the court.
The series was certainly an entertaining one, setting the stage for an even better 2019-20 season between these two division rivals.
