The Big Lead

Charlie Villanueva To Russell Westbrook: Save Dancing For The Club

By Ryan Phillips

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Charlie Villanuevamade headlines on Monday for interrupting Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne’s pre-game dance routine before Game 2 of the Thunder-Mavericks playoff series. After the game, Kevin Durant and Westbrook mocked Villanueva’s actions and basically made fun of him for not playing.

Well, Villanueva answered back on Tuesday and he was pretty blunt:

" #PROcast EXCLUSIVE: “If you want to go dancing & stuff like that, go to a nightclub.” – @CVBelieve to Westbrook.https://t.co/tIHep0wsOI — FOX Sports: PROcast (@PROcast) April 19, 2016 "

Here’s the full text of his statement:

"“I guess I went viral. Everybody was talking about me interrupting their – Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne’s routine or dance, whatever you want to call it. And I heard their response. I heard Russell Westbrook talking about those are for the guys that don’t play, and I don’t necessarily know who he’s talking about because Cameron Payne and myself, we both had the same stat line. And Kevin Durant added his two cents, but, you know, Kevin’s a good kid, so I’m just gonna leave him alone. “You know, if you want to go dancing, stuff like that, go to a nightclub, go to a club and dance. Go to Dancing With the Stars and be a dancer. You want to battle and dance, we can battle. But not on a basketball game. Not on a basketball game. And plus, they were in my way too, so I wasn’t necessarily interrupting their dance. But, great team win, looking forward to Game 3. Great team. They’re a great team. So we got to come ready to play. I know they gonna bring it, so we got to be ready. Peace.”"

Here’s the thing: Villanueva is completely right in this situation. Westbrook and Payne don’t have a “right” to that space on the court. Anyone can stand there whenever they want. Their dance is ridiculous. It’s not a quick handshake or something like that, it’s insanely long and obnoxious to anyone who isn’t them. I’m sure some Thunder fans like it, but it’s lame. You want to do that, do it in front of your own bench, not in front of the scorer’s table at center court.

Westbrook and Payne would probably just argue they’re only having some fun and that’s fine. But to get ticked off when someone gets in your way of doing a pointless dance routine that has absolutely nothing to do with basketball is so moronic I don’t even want to begin to unpack it.