As part of a recent sit-down interview with Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic, Bulls guard Zach LaVine noted the leadership qualities he has gained from players like Kevin Garnett and Jamal Crawford.

“Who have you learned from, as far as leadership qualities, and what have you tried to apply with this group as far as guys looking up to you?” Charania asked the Bulls talent during their interview.

“I always pride myself as being one of the hardest workers,” LaVine replied. “Jamal (Crawford) has always been someone I talk to about being a leader. My dad played professional sports, so I can lean on how his experiences. went.

“Just picking up little things from other guys,” LaVine added. “I played with Kevin Garnett, who was the best teammate I ever had. Obviously, I'm not on that level of competitiveness and how he was. You just try to take little bits and pieces of how you can implement yourself into being a leader. Because if it's fake, people are gonna see through that. So you have to stay true to who you are.”

LaVine played just one season with Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he learned a lot about work ethic and leadership in that span.

“We had a shootaround at like 9:00 a.m. one time, and I got there early,” the Bulls star said, recalling a Garnett story. “I was always one of the first ones in the gym. Kevin is there, in a dead sweat, 40 years old… at like eight o'clock, running sprints. He's not even going to play in this game. He just got to the team and he's going hard.

“It's just how prepared he was is what I saw,” LaVine said of Garnett. “With him being a Hall of Famer and he was 40 years old, it was crazy.”

Though the Bulls (15-27 overall) have struggled through the first half of this season, LaVine is continuing to work hard on developing his game. As a result, he's posting career-high numbers in several statistical categories, including points, three-point percentage and steals.

“I work extremely hard,” LaVine said in his interview with Charania. “I take four or five hundred shots a day.”

In his 42 appearances with the Bulls this season, LaVine has racked up averages of 24.6 points on 44.0 percent shooting from the field (40.0 percent from beyond the arc), 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals in 33.9 minutes per outing.

LaVine and the Bulls will be back in action on Friday night, when they'll take on the Sixers. Tip-off inside the Wells Fargo Center is set for 7:00 p.m. ET, with ESPN having live broadcast coverage.