There is no player who ever forgets their welcome moment to the NBA. It is one of those defining moments of their career that eventually molds them into who they are. What’s better than legends like Damian Lillard and Kobe Bryant being part of that moment? Can it get any better than that?
Former Los Angeles Lakers Point guard D’Angelo Russell recently shared his welcome moment in the NBA against the Portland Trail Blazers. Let’s hear out the incredible story!
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D’Angelo Russell’s favorite story
On The Old Man and The Three Podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter, JJ Redick asked Russell, “What was your first welcome to the NBA on the court? Was there somebody you played against very early on where you were kind of like either I can’t believe I’m here or they just locked you up or they scored on you or something you were like okay yeah this is different.”
Russell responded excitedly, “Man, I love telling this story. I’m not going to lie.” He then began the story and narrated, “We were in Portland, we’re playing Dame. The start of the game they’re like you’re going to guard Dame, accept the challenge. I’m like cool, let’s do it.” At this point, it seemed like Russell had no clue what he was getting into.
He continued, “So, we’re out there and I’m just like in awe like staying there literally wow! So, I’m spilling maybe the whole first quarter. This dude pulls up deep ball three, come down foul on me and one, lookup, deep ball three another one, another one just back at it. It felt like it was just all out and I was on this island by myself like no one was there to help.”
Who stepped up then? None other than, Kobe Bryant.
Kobe Bryant to the rescue
“They call time out,” said Russell. “Kobe looks at me, he’s like what you want the m***** f***** to have 50? and I’m like I don’t even know what I was just like you know one of those.”
Finishing up the story Russell said, “Kobe goes out and guards them. This is when I saw, first of all, that was my welcome to NBA moment, just Dame f****** heaven. I don’t even know what he had but then seeing Kobe guard him and just beat him up basically. They weren’t letting Kobe just foul out of that game one and he just beat him up. He probably had 50 on me and his game was probably 50. You know like just Kobe just he shut it down but I watched the rest kind of let Kobe beat the shit out of them.”
Russell was so shocked when he saw this performance and said, “I was just like man that’s just reputation one and then two like damn! that was just cool to see that”.
Kobe never failed to surprise anybody who saw him on the court, and Damian Lillard never fails to scare anybody who plays against them. This has to be an iconic welcome moment that anybody has ever had.
