If the Los Angeles Lakers win this year’s NBA championship, Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook want rings for their time with the team despite being traded.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith wasn’t having any of it.

“Hell no,” Smith said on Thursday’s episode of First Take. “Can we stop? Are you kidding me? I mean, I can’t believe that question. Listen, I got mad love for Patrick Beverley. I’ve known him for years. I got a lot of love and affection for that brother. He did a good job for us last summer, to be quite honest with you. Russell Westbrook, (I have) mad respect for him. Future hall-of-famer. Never cheats the game with his effort. Always brings it. But the reality is that the Lakers are better without you than they were with you.”

Westbrook was traded to the Utah Jazz before the NBA trade deadline. He was eventually bought out by the Jazz and signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Beverley was traded to his hometown Chicago Bulls. At the time, the Lakers were the 13th seed in the Western Conference before acquiring a slew of new players and going on a late-season surge to earn the seventh seed in the playoffs. Now, the Lakers look primed to make another run at a championship after upsetting the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.

In the NBA, the team that wins the NBA Finals may offer championship rings to all players who wore the uniform that season, even if they’re no longer on the roster. Because of this, Beverley and Westbrook would like the Lakers to extend the offer should they win.

“Hey Pat, if the Lakers win I want my ring” –@russwest44 (via @patbev21)

“I ain’t gonna lie Russ.. I’m gonna be right there waiting on that ring” –@patbev21 @PatBevPod @rone pic.twitter.com/Dbjri96tkZ

— Viva La Stool (@VivaLaStool) May 4, 2023

Smith argued that the two were at the core of the Lakers’ issues before being traded, so they wouldn’t deserve rings.

“How the hell do you deserve a ring?” he said. “No. I mean, unless you want to acknowledge that they were better without you and that they wouldn’t have been able to get the pieces that they got if they didn’t move you out of the way. If that’s your argument, fine. But that’s the only argument you can make. That is ridiculous. That is ridiculous. Two roughriders and high-end competitors, I’m actually surprised they would say something like that.”

Watch above via ESPN

The post ‘Hell No!’ Stephen A. Smith Calls it ‘Ridiculous’ That Traded Lakers Players Want Rings if Team Wins Championship first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/N21kAdx