Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how young these guys really are. In their post-game press conference after the Rising Stars Challenge Friday night, Andrew Wiggins, D’Angelo Russell, and Jordan Clarkson spent a good portion of their time unsuccessfully trying to suppress their giggles at some inside joke (which is exactly what I would’ve been doing at that age).
But when a reporter asked Russell what it was like to finally be let loose after his struggles to find consistent playing time under head coach Byron Scott in the first half of his rookie season, second-year teammate Clarkson could be heard warning Russell under his breath and through clenched teeth to “don’t say nothing crazy.” The line of inquiry starts at about the 3:40 mark of the above video — here it is enhanced, because it’s difficult to hear.
To his credit, Russell proceeded to deliver a relatively-innocuous boilerplate response, so props to Clarkson the elder statesman here for preventing the rook from doing something he might later regret. As it stands, the duo’s All-Star Weekend excursion to Toronto can be considered an unmitigated success after helping lead the USA squad to victory and, perhaps most important, not injuring themselves or others.
