Presumably so that he can remind him on an almost daily basis that Tracy McGrady is not, in fact, the greatest of all-time, the Lakers have apparently conspired to situate incoming rookie D’Angelo Russell‘s locker right next to Kobe Bryant‘s. Via Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News:
“I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be around,” said Russell, who will first practice with Bryant on Tuesday in Honolulu. “So to have the opportunity to pick his brain a little bit every day, I don’t have to make it weird by walking to his locker. I’ll just look to my right and there he is.”
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“He has a good head on his shoulders,” Bryant said of Russell. “My responsibility is going to help him just not to lose sight of what’s most important, which is the game.”
Russell already sees a lot of similarities between Kobe and himself, but one thing he’ll need to learn is how not to keep inserting his foot into his mouth every other week. And Russell isn’t the only incoming Laker rookie who’ll need a few lessons in social media management. In an absolutely stunning turn of poetic justice, Larry Nance, Jr. — who once called Kobe a rapist on Twitter — ended up getting drafted by Los Angeles late in the first round this summer, and will also be sharing a locker room with Kobe, although probably not quite in as close proximity as Russell.
All of this team-building and interpersonal restoration will be paramount if — as everyone on the Lakers seems to believe, for some reason — they’re going to make the playoffs like they’ve planned.
