D’Angelo Russell stands as a one-in-a-million player who was able to share the court with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James on a different Los Angeles Lakers timeline.
As such, he gave clear details about how the two differ from each other in terms of approaching the game upon appearing on “The Pat Bev Podcast” with Rone.
“My Kobe was old; my Kobe was on his way out… I’ll just go from an aura perspective. Kobe was on his way out, but LeBron is more involved with everybody and everything. On the bus he’s social, on the plane he’s social, he’s just more sociable. When I was with Kobe, I sat next to him on the plane and we sat in one of the back seats… I sat next to him every time and just watched and studied him and just chill next to him – he never talked.
“He was real to himself, and at the time he was writing the movie and the book, he was directing and doing all this stuff so he was locked in, but with Kobe I’ve never seen anything like that. When he walked around, you know how everyone’s talking and someone enters a room and everyone goes quiet? He had that about him like everywhere he went, wherever he went, everybody just stopped, just got quiet, it was almost weird for the guys. But he embraced it and that’s really the only difference.
“On the floor, he was on his way out so he didn’t really have that youthness to him where he was bouncey, he was just getting to it. Bron obviously still has a different motivation, he’s still writing his book (career). Kobe already decided he was retiring that year. Our team was, everybody was on a one-year deal and there weren’t a lot of young guys so our ‘win now’ moment wasn’t there…” Russell stated.
“It was a fun little run, but we got Kobe on the way out when he was happy-go-lucky and his spirit was a little different. Everybody always said like ‘Man, you lucky you got Kobe on his way out versus when he was still through the grind because he was nasty and competitive’ and everything you say he brought that into it.”
Russell managed to play with the late great Bryant during his rookie year in 2015-2016. As the Lakers’ prized second-overall pick that season, the franchise didn’t seize competitive considerations as they opted to hand the all-time great his well-deserved farewell tour in the NBA.
Meanwhile, Russell made a return in Los Angeles last 2022-23 season and ultimately assumed a huge responsibility of helping James and the Lakers be back to contention. Ultimately, they were able to flip the club’s campaign to success, carving a Conference Finals ending.
The description made by Russell about Bryant being a serious figure is just similar to what Dwight Howard also claimed when he had a chance to differentiate the two sports icons.
Nevertheless, he can only consider himself being lucky and blessed that he was able to learn and experience sharing the court with two of the greatest the game has ever seen.
