*D’Angelo Russell said he was “naive” to Kobe Bryant’s legacy when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers during his rookie year for the 2015-16 season.
“I was just naive to his whole legacy at that time, bro. I’m young and dumb, thinking everything’s funny. Kobe Bryant? Let me see if I can make him laugh,” DLo told Theo Pinson on “Run Your Race,” the Basketball Network reports.
Recognizing Russell’s potential, Kobe took the young guard under his wing.
“I got it the hard way. He wasn’t laughing; he was serious all the time. He smiled, but he little bro’d me. You know what I mean? It wasn’t like ‘Shoo, fly,’ it was like ‘Lil bro, think about this,’” Russell shared.
According to Russell, he often felt overwhelmed by the lessons Kobe was trying to impart.
“I was 18, bro, so the knowledge he was kicking was way over my head at that point. I’m looking him in his face like, ‘Yeah,’ and not hearing nothing he’s saying,” Russell admitted.
“I was moving at 100 miles an hour, and he’d be talking like Mr. Miyagi. I’d be like, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ and then I’d be moving again. Then I’d get a text from him and be like, ‘Oh,’ and then move again. It was a blur, for real,” he recalled.
DLo continued, “… all that stuff would be way over my head.”
Kobe would discuss things D’Angelo “should be thinking about when I’m done playing,” Russell said. Now, he understands those lessons in a way he couldn’t as a young athlete starting his professional basketball career.
“Now, in year 10, that’s the stuff that I’m on now, trying to prepare for when I’m done playing,” DLo said.
Watch D’Angelo Russell’s full conversation on “Run Your Race” via the YouTube clip above.
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