Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and of young basketball players in general wait with bated breath to see if Julius Randle can be a legitimate player in what will hopefully be his first full season in LA. He’s an exciting talent, without conventional size but with plenty of strength and athleticism. And he’s got Kobe in his corner, for what it’s worth. His future is wide open.
But if there’s one thing we can be completely sure of when it comes to Randle, it’s that he can dominate some teenagers in one-on-one. This video was taken at the Spalding Boys & Girls Club. Jun Hood, the kid with the basketball, definitely has some handle, but it’s fair to say that he’s at a bit of a size disadvantage.
Nothing gets young kids more hyped on a basketball court than a sick rejection, and the assembled crowd has a reliably wild reaction. There’s something nice about the way the kids mob Hood, not to mock him, but seemingly to embrace him as if he’s undergone a rite of passage. And in a way, he has. No one expected him to really go toe-to-toe with Randle, but Hood had the guts to try, and he gave his friends a huge laugh. And Hood left the top comment on the video with a simple “haha,” so we can probably say that no feelings were hurt.
So who wore it better: Randle, or Kevin Durant?
