National Basketball Association

D'Angelo Russell describes newfound 'freedom in Kobe not being around'

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:51 p.m. ET

Rob Perez

As the Los Angeles Lakers prepare for their 2016-2017 season opener Wednesday night, point guard D'Angelo Russell spoke with to ESPN's Sam Alipour about what life around the Lakers is like without Kobe Bryant -- using words such as 'freedom' to describe the current situation

"We're all about playing together now ... It's not about one guy anymore. It's about sacrificing for the team.

Kobe deserved every bit of attention he got in his last year, but there's freedom in Kobe not being around ... There's no one leader, no face of the Lakers"

When we traveled to San Antonio last season, I noticed that it's about everybody -- they had all those household names, but the 15th guy got the same amount of attention as Tim Duncan, who's a legend. I feel like we're all buying into that concept. We're a team now. And that's exciting."

Between Kobe Bryant's retirement tour, his documented quarrels with head coach Byron Scott, and averaging 13.2 points and 3.3 assists per game -- ultimately translating to a mediocre 13.2 player efficiency rating -- Russell had a difficult rookie season by his standards.

The good news for Russell and Lakers fans everywhere is that he and the team's new head coach (Luke Walton) are getting along great. Combine this with D'Angelo's words above about the end of the Kobe Bryant era, and it surely looks like Russell is ready for the fresh start that has been presented to him.