The 2025-26 season has not been kind to the Sacramento Kings.
As of March 6, the Kings have the worst record in the league at 14-50, trending downward despite having some veteran talent in Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis.
It was another of those veterans, however, who was extremely vocal with the media after the Kings' latest loss, a 133-123 defeat against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night. Russell Westbrook — who has never been shy to call out reporters — had a nearly seven-minute back-and-forth exchange with media members, saying "you guys have a lot of opinions about what we’re doing," "you don’t know anything about me" and "it’s my job to speak up for the guys in the locker room."
Here's a look at Westbrook's lengthy exchanges with reporters after Thursday's game.
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Russell Westbrook exchange with media after Kings loss
Westbrook's rant began with a question about what the Kings could accomplish over the last 19 games of the season with their struggling record. At first, he said Sacramento could just “go out and compete," but he then reversed the question onto reporters.
*"*What y’all think though? Because y’all got the answers and always be talking," Westbrook said.
When a reporter answered that he didn't have any answers, Westbrook continued.
"Oh, very interesting. You guys have a lot of opinions about how we do what we doing. What you got? What about you?" he said, pointing at another reporter. "Because you make a lot of statements, and broad statements, that you have no context. Where do you get your context from? Are you at practice? Are you at our film session? Are you anywhere around the building?"
“Russ, how ya doin’ man?”
Little did they know… pic.twitter.com/f0FlonxKms
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 6, 2026
Westbrook's rant went on as he told reporters, "You don’t know anything about me.”
"Do you know me? No, you don’t know me. But you make a lot of comments as though you do know me. My intent. I see it. I see it. But I’m asking you now, that you don’t know anything about me," Westbrook said. “Anybody else? Do you guys have any comments on how we play and what we doing? You guys are quiet today, but you guys have a lot of comments when the game is going on. What we’re doing, what we should be doing, how we should be doing it. I am confused.”
One reporter responded to Westbrook's prompt, to which the Kings guard said, "You must be in our film session too." The reporter, however, then said it was "fair" to point out that Sacramento had the worst record in the league and was struggling on both sides of the ball.
“That’s been pointed out. But that's not the only thing that's being talked about. What else has been pointed out? That's not the only things you've said. I’ve seen the things you said. It’s not just about our offense and our defense and what our record is. We’ve been the worst record [in the NBA] for a long time now. ... I’m asking you. You have a lot of things to say, so this is your time, this is your floor to say it."
Westbrook then began exchanging with a different reporter, who said, "I think it's been a rough year for everybody," and this was "the worst season I've seen" by the Kings since he'd been covering them. The reporter said he didn't blame Westbrook for the struggles.
“I don’t think nobody is blaming me. What I don’t like, I’ve been in the league a long time and around a lot of different organizations. Media, beat writers, and we’ve got a lot of young guys on the team that don’t know what’s happening… Your guys’ job is to talk about the game. Not stir up a bunch of, I don’t want to cuss here and get fined, but stir a bunch of stuff that’s not accurate. That’s my problem," Westbrook said. "Being in the league a while, I’ve had experience where people outside of our building and film session, outside of what we do daily, how much work we put in, that’s not an easy job to do. I think the respect level is that we respect y’all and what you do. You guys come in and make your comments, and nobody say nothing. I don’t have to sit back. The media’s been my thing, but as the leader of this team, it’s my job to speak up for the guys in the locker room.
"Because of the comments you guys make, we’ve got guys thinking about a whole bunch of random things that have nothing to do with the game. You guys are making false comments about the team and what we’re doing here, and I don’t appreciate that. My ask is that you respect what we do and we’ll respect what you do."
Toward the end of his rant, Westbrook acknowledged that he joined the Kings as a veteran late in his career.
“I came here a little late, but I feel like you guys expect that we was gonna win a championship. The conversation we’re [hearing] is that if we don’t win a championship, it’s a bust or something. That’s not the case. This is our job. Y’all have your job, you go to work. It would be great if we could critique y’all, but we don’t. We have our job, and we come to do our job the best way we know how to. Wins, losses, all a part of the game. And after that, we go home. Y’all go home and see y'all families, we go home and see our families, and that's that.
But don’t make false context comments about people as individuals, people and who they are, what they do, what they’re thinking, why they’re doing this, how come they’re doing that? If you don’t know, don’t say nothing you don’t know nothing about.”
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Kings reporter responds to Russell Westbrook exchange
After the game, a radio host for Sactown Sports, Matt George, acknowledged that he was one of the reporters going back-and-forth with Westbrook.
Well. That was eventful.
— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) March 6, 2026
"I am the 'you' that Russell Westbrook talked about in his postgame press conference tonight," George said on his podcast.
George acknowledged that he believes sports reporting is a "two-way street," and he was willing to accept criticism from Westbrook. As for what he believes he may have said that upset Westbrook, George said he thinks it was the fact that he's said this Kings team is "the worst ever," and at this point in the season, there is "no value" in Westbrook playing significant minutes for the team.
"I don't see any benefit whatsoever to the Sacramento Kings organization or to those young guys for Russell Westbrook to get out there and chase milestones," George said. "Maybe he feels that I am judging that he is prioritizing himself, or his individual goals and his numbers over the success of the Sacramento Kings. ... He has more than a right to feel that way."