The Los Angeles Lakers underwent a profoundly disappointing experience in the 2021-22 NBA season.
Though they entered the season believed to be real title contenders, they failed to even advance to the play-in tournament. Understandably, that has a lot of fans in Los Angeles feeling pretty distraught over how far their favorite team has fallen. Based on a recent article, fans are not the only people in L.A. that are getting restless.
Jeanie Buss, the owner and president of the Lakers, recently admitted to the Los Angeles Times that she too is “growing impatient” with the way things have been going for the Purple and Gold.
“I’m growing impatient just because we had the fourth-highest payroll in the league. … When you spend that kind of money on the luxury tax, you expect to go deep into the playoffs,” she told The Times. “So, yeah, it was gut-wrenching for me to go out on a limb like that and not get the results that we were looking for. … I’m not happy, I’m not satisfied.”
There’s no question that the Lakers faced an uphill battle this season. After all, superstar big man Anthony Davis missed more than half of the season due to injury. Without him, a lot of what the Lakers have done best in recent years goes out the window.
Beyond that, the acquisition of former MVP Russell Westbrook was an unmitigated disaster. That might be what Buss was referring to when she mentioned going “out on a limb” in her chat with Bill Plaschke.
The expectation is that Westbrook will be off the team by the time the 2022-23 season begins. However, it remains to be seen what a breakup between the two sides would look like.
