NBA BEAT - DRAFTED LAKER D'ANGELO RUSSELL is HOLLYWEIRD BOUND

Kobe Bryant is now in a position to tutor the Lakers draft selections D''Angelo Russell and Larry Nance Jr. The question raised is... is he capable? - Keith Allison photo

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Drama continues to reign in Lakers Land as their 2nd and 27th draft choices raises some doubts and questions. IS KOBE BRYANT the TUTOR KIND of GUY? Apparently the Lakers effort in their race to disgrace is on target

Thursday, June 25, 2015

IS KOBE BRYANT a TUTOR KIND of GUY?

If there's one thing you can count on with the Los Angeles Lakers, IT'S DRAMA. In the NBA draft Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak faked everybody out by choosing 6'5" point guard D'Angelo Russell with the 2nd overall NBA draft pick over the anticipated choice of a 7' big man Jahlil Okafor. Lakers coach Byron Scott was impressed with Russell's 3 on 3 workouts with the team and that apparently that weighed heavily in the Lakers decision.

The choice raises the question WHY? There's no question the Lakers are weak in every area but WHY would the choose a streak shooting guard to team with Kobe Bryant over a YOUNG BIG MAN that could develop into the caliber of talent relevant to Shaquille O'Neal or Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Wilt Chamberlain is out of the question since only Bill Russell could challenge his talent.

Okafor set a Duke University scoring record with 35 double-digit scoring games while Russell is best remembered for a 3-19 shooting collapse in a losing effort against Arizona in the NCAA tournament. Again it appears the Lakers have made another bone head decision in their race to disgrace. They are counting on their overpaid, often injured star Kobe Bryant to tutor their new point guard edition.

The decision raises the question, is Bryant a teacher or a teller. His past history indicates that he has a short fuse with his teammates in criticizing them. The result has been friction on the team. Russell is coming into a troubled franchise with a positive attitude regarding teaming up with a running on empty Bryant.

"Man, Kobe is a great dude," he said. "Not knowing how much he has left in the tank is the scary thing, knowing how much he brings to the game, and if he leaves what we'll lose. But I'm really looking forward to him taking me under his wing, if possible, and really just feeding me the knowledge, the most knowledge he can and just letting me use that as fire against my opponents."

Regarding the Lakers choosing him over Okafor Russell claims he was not aware of their plans.

"I didn't know at all, I didn't know at all, man," he noted. "I'm still in shock. I mean, you only can go by the rumors months ago that what everybody was saying was going to happen. But dreams come true, and life is not fair for people that don't agree to the decision that the front office made. But I'm here, and I'm ready to make an impact right away."

Okafor claims he was in the dark as to what plans the Lakers had.

"No, they never gave me any answer, as much as we tried to get an answer from Minnesota, as much as we tried to get an answer from the Lakers, nobody ever answered. I didn't know what to expect," he stated.

Another shocking Lakers move was using their other 1st round pick (27th overall) in selecting Wyoming power forward Larry Nance Jr. Nance previously made some negative comments in social media regarding Bryant's sexual experience in Colorado a decade ago with an 18-year-old white girl who was an employee at the hotel where he was staying. The case was rape but was settled out of court. Nance also has some injury history from a torn ACL and Chron's disease. Now the ball falls on Kobe's court.

. The question is will he be the teacher or the preacher? Stay tuned.

THIS DAY IN THE NBA

June 25, 1997 San Antonio selects Tim Duncan from Wake Forest with the first pick in the 1997 NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum.

June 25, 1999 The San Antonio Spurs defeat the New York Knicks in five games to capture the 1999 NBA Finals, thus becoming the first former ABA franchise to win a title in the NBA. Tim Duncan was named the 1999 NBA Finals MVP after contributing 27.4 points and 14.0 rebounds per game in the series.