D’Angelo Russell has admitted that Magic Johnson’s comments about his leadership ability bothered him more than he tried to let on.
Russell, now with the Brooklyn Nets, was traded by the Los Angeles Lakers during the offseason, with Johnson repeatedly saying he sought better leadership at the point guard position. Russell shrugged off the comments at the time, but now, after facing the Lakers for the first time, he admitted that they made things tough for him.
“I would say it ruffled a few feathers,” Russell said of the comments, via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “But you control what you can control. He’s in a position to say what he wants, so I just try to do what I can do at the end of the day.”
Russell feels he should be commended for weathering an often tumultuous tenure in Los Angeles.
“I went through a lot when I was here,” Russell said. “It’s nothing I could really control. It was out of my hands by that point [when he was traded].
“I went through a lot — Kobe’s farewell, everything. … So just to overcome that, I salute myself for that.”
Some of Russell’s Laker issues were at least partially brought upon himself. It was probably better for everyone involved that he got a fresh start elsewhere.
