Kent Bazemore congratulates Warriors he reportedly spurned for Lakers, admits 'I'm sick bruh'
The Golden State Warriors are riding high, on their way back to the NBA Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers are sitting at home, figuring out what on earth to do with Russell Westbrook.
You sure wouldn't want to be someone who picked the latter over the former, right?
Well, unfortunately, just such a player exists. His name is Kent Bazemore, he is a 10-year NBA veteran who used to play for the Warriors and he spent this season with the Lakers, who failed to even make the play-in tournament in a disastrous season.
The morning after the Warriors sealed their Western Conference finals win over the Dallas Mavericks, Bazemore sent a message of congratulations to the team ... and indicated he wasn't too pleased with certain events.
Congrats to my homies…….
But I’m sick bruh 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪— Kenny Baze (@24Bazemore) May 27, 2022
The context here is that Bazemore not only had an offer from the Warriors before the season, they offered him more money and an additional year on his contract. Bazemore chose the Lakers instead, apparently believing the team with LeBron James to be the better bet on winning his first ring.
Bazemore ended up averaging 3.4 points per game and ranking 12th on the Lakers in total minutes played as they slogged to a 33-49 record. His main notoriety was as a recurring a meme from a prominent NBA Twitter figure.
Bazemore turned down more money and years (two) from the Warriors, sources say, but believes he will have a bigger role and opportunity to win a championship with the Lakers. Bazemore is betting on himself. https://t.co/rw1VyXMN9c
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 3, 2021
To be fair to Bazemore, he was not the only person who had the Lakers above the Warriors entering this season.
The Lakers were the preseason title favorite at BetMGM (though that would have been buoyed by a plethora of bets by Lakers fans). They had won a title more recently than the Warriors, still had the two players who made that title happen and had just added a third star in Westbrook.
There were some reasons for worry, namely the team's age and questions about Westbrook's fit on the roster, but it's easy to forget the level of hype in Los Angeles after such a brutal train wreck.
Bazemore, now a free agent, ended up not enjoying the discourse he kicked off, implying something written about him was not actually true and promising some violent medicine ball reps later in the day.
You people will believe anything that you read 🙈
— Kenny Baze (@24Bazemore) May 27, 2022
I’m mad I even gave y’all the time. That’s on me. Gotta be better. These med ball slams are going to hit different today 😤 pic.twitter.com/hdrw78TJc3
— Kenny Baze (@24Bazemore) May 27, 2022
Meanwhile, the Warriors are set to begin the NBA Finals on Thursday against the winner of the Eastern Conference finals.