D’Angelo Russell got traded by the Los Angeles Lakers last season, the second time Los Angeles dealt him. He did not waste time throwing shade as he walked out the door.
In a sit-down with Dwyane Wade on the Wy Network, Russell made his feelings crystal clear about the team that drafted him and later brought him back.
“I came from the Lakers where the structure is not the same, and then I go to Brooklyn where it’s all structure and it taught me how to be a professional.” 👀
- D’Angelo Russell
(🎥 @wynetwork )
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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 6, 2025
D’Angelo Russell took a parting shot the Lakers didn’t deserve
“The organization in Brooklyn is unlike any other,” he said. “I came from the Lakers, where the structure is not the same, and then I go to Brooklyn, where it’s all structure, and it taught me how to be a professional.”
There is no sugarcoating this; that comment is a straight-up jab. And it is coming from a guy who just wrapped up an extremely forgettable stint with the Lakers once again.
Last season, Russell averaged a modest 12.9 points while shooting an abysmal 41 percent from the field and a disappointing 33 percent from beyond the arc.
He struggled to find his groove and lost his starting spot. By the trade deadline, the Lakers shipped him back to the Brooklyn Nets, the very team that helped resurrect his career years ago. The irony in all of this is that the Lakers gave him a second chance.
After his early exit from Los Angeles in 2017, Russell rebuilt his image in Brooklyn, became an All-Star in 2019, and bounced around until the Lakers brought him back in 2022. They gave him another shot, this time on a contender with real expectations, and he could not deliver.
So now, hearing him credit the Nets for “teaching him how to be a professional” while undermining the team that invested in him twice feels just downright shady. If anything, the Lakers should be the ones throwing shade, not the guy who always fell short when it mattered most.
Lakers fans know this is not really new. Russell has always thrived on drama, on and off the court. He is now with the Dallas Mavericks as a backup to Kyrie Irving but clearly still has Los Angeles on his mind, maybe more than he realizes.
At the end of the day, Russell had not one but two chances to become a lasting part of Lakers history. Instead, he chose to take a parting shot, and in doing so, probably made sure there will not ever be a third.