Rookie D’Angelo Russell found himself in hot water with Kobe Bryant and Lakers fans when he tweeted Tracy McGrady might have been the greatest of all time.
Russell spoke to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News recently about some things — including his Summer League struggles — and one of the topics was that tweet. Here’s what he had to say.
“There’s a lot of spoiled Lakers fans. I wasn’t downgrading Kobe at all,” Russell said Saturday in an interview with the Los Angeles News Group. “I was just watching a highlight tape of Tracy McGrady and I got excited. I tweeted and the whole state of California went crazy.”
I believe Russell was just excited about what he was seeing and tweeted out the thought (I’ve done it before), and didn’t realize given the history and comparisons between the two that a tweet like that would get a rise out of Kobe and Laker fans.
Now with a clearer head he called Lakers fans “spoiled”. Also true but he’s definitely gonna get it for that as well. He’s a rookie though, it’ll take some time before he has enough media training on what not to say, unless he really doesn’t care and wants to be the rare athlete that actually speaks his mind, then more kudos to him.
