Lakers' Russell Westbrook: 'Unfortunate' that outgoing coach Frank Vogel didn't connect with me

Now that the Los Angeles Lakers’ disappointing season is over and they fired coach Frank Vogel with one year left on his contract, Russell Westbrook opened up about the issues that plagued him all season long.

After being acquired in the offseason and adding to the hype that the Lakers had championship potential, Westbrook never fully fit in with his new team

"I think it's unfortunate, to be honest, because I've never had an issue with any of my coaches before," Westbrook said Monday in a press conference. "I'm not sure what his issue was with me or I'm not sure why, but I can't really give you an answer to why we really never connected."

Westbrook’s 18.5 points-per-game mark was the lowest of his career since 2009-10, when he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder and averaged 16.1. While Westbrook, 33, has had to alter his game slightly as he has aged, his style has been to take the ball and push the tempo up the court, being aggressive in transition and on offense.

"When I first got here, the ability to be able to do what I'm able to do for a team and an organization wasn't given a fair chance," he said.

Westbrook then took aim at L.A. stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the cornerstones of the team, for what he felt was duplicitous support for his game. Westbrook invoked a phrase that came up this season — “let Russ be Russ” — and said that while James and Davis expressed the thought, he didn’t think they meant it.

"Yeah," Westbrook said when asked about James and Davis saying that in support of his play. "But that wasn't true.

"It's a combination of where we are on the floor, positioning, fit and challenge, trial and error, being able to play on the floor with each other," Westbrook continued. "Finding ways to be able to utilize us to the best of our abilities. It's that simple."

Westbrook, a nine-time All-Star and the 2016-17 NBA Most Valuable Player, was the Lakers’ highest-paid player, this season, according to spotrac.com, making $44.2 million. He said stories published about him in the news media helped create a narrative about him that wasn’t true and made his time in Los Angeles more difficult.

"The famous 'source' stories that came out about myself, whether it be between me and the staff, me and Frank, me and the fans, there's just so many made-up stories that are not true," Westbrook said. "It's just always having to fight against that constantly. It's just not given a fair chance. It's like, 'OK, now I got to fight against this made-up story. Now I got to fight against this one. Now I go to fight against this one. …' "

Westbrook declined to go into specifics.

Westbrook, according to ESPN, has a player option worth $47 million for next season. Westbrook didn’t say Monday whether he had made a decision on what to do.

Aside from his low scoring figures this season, Westbrook collected 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game. While those numbers are still solid, they present a significant drop from last season’s, in which he averaged a triple-double, with 22.2 points per game, with 11.5 rebounds and a league-high 11.7 assists.

"Just my play in general, not my best season, just going off my own personal scale," he said. "Obviously I'm coming off averaging a triple-double, so anything less than that would not be a good season for me in my eyes, you know what I'm saying? So that's why the scale of where it comes from is a little bit different."

The Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention last Tuesday, following a loss to the Phoenix Suns, the team that knocked them out of the first round of the NBA playoffs last year. Los Angeles finished 11th in the Western Conference, with a 33-49 record.

"I mean, obviously it's going to be a lot of different changes based on who the coach is and how our style of play and what we play like," Westbrook said of playing next season with the Lakers. "So, that question is kind of up in the air. But once that decision is made then we'll kind of go from there."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lakers' Russell Westbrook airs grievances after disastrous season