LeBron James has been at the forefront of the NBA industry for more than two decades now. The Los Angeles Lakers star has laid the blueprint for what a successful athlete looks like.
Needless to say, countless players — including some of his current teammates — grew up idolizing him and molding their games or their careers after him. That includes D’Angelo Russell.
Recently, the Lakers guard admitted that he’s learned a lot from the 21-season veteran, not only in terms of basketball but also about how to deal with the media and whatnot.
D’Angelo Russell Has Learned A Lot From LeBron James
“Bron is one of those guys that you can learn more from by sitting back and listening, watching,” Russell said on The Backyard Podcast. “He’s a smart dude, he knows all the rebuttals, answers, responses, answers to that. He knows the little knick knacks to this; rules. He’s a very smart dude. For me, I feel like I benefit a lot when I’m just listening to him. Just watching. It may even be from a distance. Not on no weird sh*t, but how he’s interacting, how he’s talking, how he’s conversating. That’s something I really picked up on. And then on the court, Bron is really a machine. Because you can’t treat him as if you’re a fan of him on the court. It’s so hard not to say something fan-ish on the court.”
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James
Russell has also been on the other side of the court against him. That’s why he’s learned how he deals with opposition and how he can smell blood when other guys are starstruck by him:
“As an opponent, for a fact, but I’m his teammate and I want to say something. I wanna ask him all these questions, like fanboy sh*t,” Russell continued. “But like I know people when they play against him, they wanna ask him those same questions and he’s like ’That’s blood, I smell it. I’m attacking it.’ So it’s gonna to be around all those different dudes, for sure. I had to normalize that because I’m a fan. So the quicker I normalized that this was just LeBron James, alright let’s just keep pushing or whatever, the better I am. The better I was. The more myself I was. But if I was still stuck in the ‘Oh my god bro, can you sign this for me bro? Can we get this selfie bro?’ It just gets weird. That ain’t really me.”
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Russell is having one of the best seasons of his career, and he could end up being the X-Factor for Darvin Ham’s team. Needless to say, most of their postseason chances will run through James, but even the best players need help to get the job done.
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