D'Angelo Russell on Victor Wembanyama: He should have won all the player awards

Russell appeared on the Run Your Race podcast and the Lakers guard spoke about that year with Kobe, saying he was so young and naive that he wasn’t really hearing what he was trying to teach him, but as time passed it began to resonate with him: “Great time. I mean, once again I was just naive to his whole legacy at that time. I’m 18 bro, so I’m young and dumb. Everything’s funny. Kobe Bryant, let me see if I can make him laugh, just young and dumb bro, so I got it the hard way. He wasn’t laughing, he was serious all the time. But he little bro’d me though, it wasn’t like ‘shoo fly’ it was like ‘lil bro, you shouldn’t do that, think about this.’ And I’m moving at 100 miles an hour and he’d be talking like he was Mr. Miyagi and I’d hear him, and then I’m moving again, and then you’ll get a text from him, and then I’m moving again. It was a blur for real for real, but little things come back and I’ll remember a lot of stuff he was saying. -via Lakers Nation / July 30, 2024

ClutchPoints: D’Angelo Russell was cheering for Team USA during their game against Serbia 🙌 (via @MRI_6H) pic.twitter.com/lwXmRPG8DQ -via Twitter @ClutchPointsApp / July 29, 2024

“D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura, they have somewhere between neutral to negative trade value across the league. There are certain teams that have interest in maybe one of those guys, but there are very few if any teams that have interest in multiple of those guys, and that’s ultimately been why the Lakers have been not able to find a deal. Then you have these draft picks that have a lot of value, but everyone’s going to want at least one if not both, and then you also don’t have the roster flexibility to take on more contracts because you have a full roster. The Lakers are in a tricky position.” -via YouTube / July 17, 2024

Grabbing at his lower right leg after a quick trip off the court late in the first quarter, then grabbing at his left hip a couple of times later in the game, Wembanyama seemed to be laboring at times in France’s second game of the Paris Olympics. After the game, Wembanyama said it wasn’t his hip that was bothering him, but “other places.” -via ESPN / July 30, 2024

Ben Golliver: France coach Vincent Collet said Victor Wembanyama displayed a “champion’s maturity and a champion’s mentality” by hitting big shots in crunch time after subpar start. – “We need him. Our team has a lack of creation.” -via Twitter @BenGolliver / July 30, 2024

Mike Finger: After Victor Wembanyama’s last bucket in overtime for the French team, he screamed, “Lets f***ing go!” … in English. I asked him if the US has rubbed off on him. “That’s a basketball player thing,” he said. “I think in Mongolia, Australia or the North Pole, they say it.” -via Twitter @mikefinger / July 30, 2024