Former Lakers PG Shares His Welcome Story Starring Kobe Bryant and Damian Lillard

NBA players never forget their welcome moment to the NBA. This moment defines their careers. Lakers legend Kobe Bryant sure made the best headlines in that aspect. Damian Lillard gave him a hand in the process. Former Los Angeles Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell shared details of his welcome moment in the NBA against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Russell appeared on The Old Man and The Three Podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter. Reddick asked, “What was your first welcome to the NBA on the court? Was there somebody you played against very early on where you were kind of like either I can’t believe I’m here or they just locked you up or they scored on you or something you were like okay yeah this is different.”

Russell’s response was hilarious. He had the opportunity to share the best story in his life and yes, he didn’t lie at all.

“Man, I love telling this story. I’m not going to lie. We were in Portland, we’re playing Dame. The start of the game they’re like you’re going to guard Dame, accept the challenge. I’m like cool, let’s do it.” 

He didn’t even know what struck him.

“So, we’re out there and I’m just like in awe like staying there literally wow!” Russell said. “So, I’m spilling maybe the whole first quarter. This dude pulls up deep ball three, come down foul on me and one, lookup, deep ball three another one, another one just back at it. It felt like it was just all out and I was on this island by myself like no one was there to help.”

Lakers icon Kobe Bryant saves the game

Things got really hot, and Russell was caught in the middle of an avalanche.

 “They call time out,” said Russell. “Kobe looks at me, he’s like what you want the ****** ****** to have 50? and I’m like I don’t even know what I was just like you know one of those.”

Russell finished his story in the most hilarious way ever. Well, we did see this coming. Kobe was a true superstar.

 “Kobe goes out and guards them. This is when I saw, first of all, that was my welcome to NBA moment, just Dame heaven. I don’t even know what he had but then seeing Kobe guard him and just beat him up basically,” Russell was finishing his story. “They weren’t letting Kobe just foul out of that game one and he just beat him up. He probably had 50 on me and his game was probably 50. You know like just Kobe just he shut it down but I watched the rest kind of let Kobe beat the shit out of them.”

It was shocking. It was an excellent performance and Russell watched it carefully.

The Black Mamba was full of surprises. Damian Lillard is scary, but Kobe was the Black Mamba. He had a solution to every problem.

The Lakers legend lost his life in a tragic helicopter crash on Jan. 26. Kobe was traveling with his daughter Gigi and seven other people, including the pilot. The plane crashed outside LA and there are no survivors. The world will remember Kobe as a fantastic player and an idol to young basketball players. He was an incredibly competitive professional with five titles under his belt.