Los Angeles Lakers rookie forward Brandon Ingram is looking up to another No. 2 overall pick for inspiration: Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant.
Ahead of the Lakers’ first regular season matchup of the year against the Warriors on Friday, Ingram, who idolized Durant growing up, said that he tries to pattern his game after the former MVP.
“I try to compare my game and pattern it after him,” Ingram said of Durant, per Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. “But at the end of the day, I want to be Brandon Ingram. When I grew up, I always wanted to be just like him. But I think the comparison is beyond my years. The comparison is more when he came into the league.”
The 19-year-old Ingram has indeed drawn comparisons to a young Durant given his player profile as a scrawny scoring combo forward who was a one-and-done out of college. And much like Durant was, Ingram has been knocked for a perceived lack of strength and bulk coming into the league.
But while that comparison to Durant, who made 80 starts and averaged 20.3 points per game as a rookie, may be a bit unfair and premature at this point, Ingram’s looking in the right place if he’s trying to find a noteworthy success story of someone of his player archetype.
H/T theScore
