He spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Evidently, he played with a plethora of players during his 20-year career with the Purple and Gold.

D’Angelo Russell had the opportunity to briefly share the court with Bryant during his first stint with the franchise. D’Lo learned a major thing about Bryant.

D’Angelo Russell sat next to Kobe Bryant on the plane

Russell is one of the luckiest players in the NBA right now. He recently shared the locker room with LeBron James before getting traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

Prior to that, D’Lo also played alongside Stephen Curry. But before playing with the two modern-day greats, Russell had the chance to be on the same court as none other than the Mamba.

“When it comes to film and like appreciating the game and the greats like never taking a day off, I sat next to him on the plane and he would have his phone like,” D’Lo said.

He added: “He was always like that, and I’m like I never like I don’t know what the heck he is doing, dang, what the heck is he doing?! So one day he did something, I saw he was watching film, he is watching the highlights! So this whole time he’s tuned to what’s going on… His highlights!”

Throughout his playing career, Kobe had the sole focus of becoming better than his rivals. As a result, he took every measure possible to stay ahead of the curve.

How Russell realized Kobe was one of the GOATs

Coming back to Russell’s story about Bryant, the then-rookie was evidently shocked at the 5x NBA champion’s dedication to keep improving.

“So I asked him, ‘You watching your film right now?’ He’s like tuned in and says ‘Yeah all of it, every time, all the time’, straight to my face and he was… no emotion, he would look at you straight up like ‘yep, all the time, every day,’” Russell continued.

“I noticed that like that film ____ is real, what I learned from him, I just watched him, I learned how he moved, how he walked, how he talked, his presence like it was real, I mean he was one of the GOATs,” D’Lo concluded.

While Russell played with Bryant for just a single season, it was more than enough for him to know what it takes to be the best player in the league for years.

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