Lakers’ Austin Reaves raves about Russell Westbrook

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves is fresh off signing his new contract extension to remain with the team for the foreseeable future. Reaves, who's quickly emerged as a fan-favorite and an intriguing No. 3 option offensively behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis, has also been an open book this offseason during recent interviews and conversations.

One media stop the 25-year-old made that provided some great behind-the-scenes context for fans was his appearance on Showtime Basketball's "All The Smoke" with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. While Reaves discussed a wide range of topics, his comments about former Lakers teammate Russell Westbrook are bound to grab plenty of attention.

When asked about what it was like to play with Westbrook prior to the team trading him, Barnes also cited the fact that Russ gets a bit of a "bad rap." He proceeded to point out that many of his teammates have high praise for Westbrook, something that Reaves doubled down on by showing his former teammate plenty of love.

"He's one of the best teammates I've ever had. As a person, you can't get much better. I got COVID  in December of my rookie year ... he reached out, like three or four times, asked if I need anything, offered to send me stuff ... as a person, you couldn't get better. The same as a teammate, he was always empowering everybody to always be better and do better and want more. Like you said, he gets a bad rap and I don't really understand why." Reaves said.