Lakers' D'Angelo Russell Discusses His Early Career and Playing With Kobe Bryant on "Spa Day"
The Los Angeles Lakers just celebrated the statue unveiling of Kobe Bryant, which was a bittersweet moment for the organization. Many of the players on the Lakers team are young or came from other teams, and current point guard D'Angelo Russell is the only current player to have played with Kobe Bryant.
Russell joined the first episode of Whistle Sports' "Spa Day" where he sat down with host Casey Rieger to discuss his early career days, playing with Kobe Bryant, and excelling at karaoke—all while getting pampered and getting his nails done.
Russell admits that one of his biggest pet peeves is dirty nails, so it's only natural that he would want to be pampered during a spa day to talk about his career.
Russell was drafted in 2015 during the first round and #2 overall by the Lakers. He would play for two seasons with the Lakeshow and was then traded to the Brooklyn Nets with Timofey Mozgov for Brook Lopez and Kyle Kuzma.
After playing for the Nets, Russell would play for the Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves, and finally reunite with the Lakers in 2023.
Russell is the only player on the current team who played with Bryant. During the interview, he revealed a hilarious story that his teammates shared about the Bryant years he experienced.
Russell was asked about what he enjoyed most about his rookie season, and he naturally picked playing with Kobe being his favorite thing.
"I got to play with Kobe. It was really cool. My brother was a big Kobe fan, and I was a LeBron fan. I was always kinda like "anti-Kobe," but respectfully. So once I got around him, all that kinda went out the window. I was just a fan of him right away. I wanted to be next to him, I wanted to sit next to him and ask him all the crazy questions as an 18-year-old."
via D'Angelo Russell, Spa Day
Russell is lucky to have been around Bryant at the tail end of his career, which we imagine was full of him asking tons of questions to up his game to arguably the hardest worker the NBA has ever seen.
Russell also indicates that everyone in the league told him the Bryant he experienced wasn't the same one that everyone came to know in his early career.
"I got Kobe on his way out. So I saw happy-go-lucky, smiley, Kobe. When I came into the league everyone said, "The Kobe you got, you are lucky, 'cause that is not Kobe.' He was a killer. Then you get around Bron, and Bron is like a grown-ass kid."
via D'Angelo Russell, Spa Day
Russell has been in the league for long enough that he has played with plenty of superstars. Playing alongside both Bryant and James is something that most people cannot say.
Russell also reveals that his favorite pastime when not on the court is singing karaoke, which his partner Laura Ivaniukas reveals he gets really into. There is a story in there about them signing karaoke on top of tables during the All-Star Weekend.
Check out the full interview in the above video.
