D’Angelo Russell thankful Kobe Bryant let him take last shot

Kobe Bryant defied the crowd’s wishes at the Target Center on Wednesday night and elected to remain on the bench in the final minutes of a close game. Instead, Bryant decided that the Lakers’ youngsters deserved a chance to take a final shot.

Bryant exited the Lakers’ game against the Timberwolves with just under four minutes left in the third quarter. He never returned. No. 3 overall pick D’Angelo Russell took over and scored 13 points in the final eight minutes of the game. He made a 3-pointer in the final minute to make it a one basket game, and then he hit a shot to tie the game with two seconds left.

The crowd in Minnesota chanted for Bryant to re-enter the game in the final minutes of regulation. But he told coach Byron Scott to “let the youngsters play.” After the game, Russell expressed his appreciation for the opportunity from Coach Kobe.

D'Angelo said "it's an honor" Kobe told Byron to keep him in: "He easily could’ve told coach he wanted that shot to add to his collection"

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) December 10, 2015

Russell ended up scoring a career-high 23 points in the loss. Last year’s No. 7 overall pick Julius Randle scored 20 points, which was his second-best mark of the season.

Kobe even seemed to be pretty thrilled about Russell making the shot to tie the game:

Maybe Kobe is getting the message that the team could be better off with him playing less minutes and passing the baton to the youngsters. Certainly what Russell had to say about playing without Kobe earlier this week must have gotten through to the former MVP.