D’Angelo Russell feels he didn’t always hold himself accountable last season and has now apologized to Los Angeles Lakers fans for that. During the Lakers’ media day, Russell stressed that he wanted to be more selfless moving forward and added that he was excited about what the future holds.
“Just trying to be selfless,” Russell said.”Obviously, I want to apologize to all the fans out there that obviously saw me not hold myself accountable throughout the year. Not be as professional as I would like to be the whole time. If I become a distraction in any way, I wanna apologize for that. For the past.
“In the future, just looking forward to being here, winning here, and being a part of this new everything,” Russell said. “It just feels new around here and super excited for it.”
Lakers legend James Worthy felt Russell had nothing to apologize for because he had given the Lakers his all. Worthy added every player always wants to do better in the future and doesn’t want the guard to be too hard on himself.
When it comes to Russell’s professionalism or lack thereof, one moment from last season really stood out to me. During Game 3 of the first-round series between the Lakers and the Denver Nuggets, Russell didn’t participate in the team huddle and instead was on his phone. That did not go down too well with the fanbase, to say the least.
With how much Russell struggled in that series against the Nuggets too, with averages of 14.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game, Laker Nation certainly wasn’t too keen on having him back. Well, the one-time All-Star decided to come back by opting into his $18.7 million player option for 2024-25 and he vows to do better now.
While the 2023-24 season ended poorly for Russell, he still remains supremely confident in his own abilities. At one point during media day, he sent out a stern message.
“I’m a problem for the opposing team.”
When Russell is playing at his best, he certainly causes all sorts of problems for the opposing team. He averaged 18.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in 2023-24 and there were stretches where teams just had no answer for him. In January 2024 for example, he averaged 22.7 points per game and shot 45.9% from three.
Those are All-Star numbers, but the problem with Russell is that he can’t keep that up for a whole season. He has also now built up a reputation for being someone who struggles in the postseason and once you get that label, it’s very hard to get rid of it.
Russell would be backing himself to make amends for his past playoff failures in 2025, but I am not sure he’ll get that chance with the Lakers. Of all the players on that team, I think he is the likeliest to be traded. If the Lakers get off to a good start, Russell might get to end the season with them but if they struggle, he probably will get shipped out.
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