Subscribe
Follow Us
When it comes to great up-and-coming NBA talents, their favorite players are often ones who have cemented legacies of greatness like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, or even Allen Iverson. For Los Angeles Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell, it's all about Manu Ginobili:
“See, it's different when you ask who your favorite player was,” Russell told ESPN's Baxter Holmes. “You can say those American guys who made their name, like Kobe (Bryant) and Allen Iverson and Shaq and all those types of guys,” he said. “But I really look at it and say, if I could model my game after somebody [it would be Ginobili].”
Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, many around him, including his older brother and childhood friends, would pledge allegiance to Bryant, but not Russell:
“He used to tell me that his favorite player was Manu Ginobili,” his brother, Antonio Russell Jr. said. “He always used to be like, ‘Manu Ginobili, Manu Ginobili, Manu Ginobili.'”
“As time went on, I saw him pattern his game [after him] and doing the things that Ginobili does,” his father, Antonio Russell Sr. said.
D'Angelo Russell studied film of the Argentinian international, trying to learn whatever he could:
“Yeah, basically everything Ginobili did,” said Jamie Johnson, a childhood friend. “He tried to watch how Ginobili moved off the ball — just everything, as far as IQ-wise too, because Ginobili, of course, isn't the fastest guy. [D'Angelo] understood that he wasn't fast either, so he tried to find players that were similar to him.”
Russell explained that if a player wanted to emulate, per se, Dwyane Wade, he might focus more on the mastery of pump-fakes and mid-range jumpers. If that player liked Bryant, precision footwork would be a definite priority. It depends on the skill attributes that suit a specific player:
Article Continues Below
“You try to go to what you're accustomed to,” Russell said. “And Manu was never as athletic, but he could really pass the ball. He could score the ball, and he was just so unpredictable, and he was a lefty, so he was a player that I really prided myself on being.”
Ginobili was one of the first to popularize the Eurostep, a maneuver commonly seen in NBA arenas today:
“Ever since then, everybody really started doing it,” said Russell.
“He was just, like, so fiery, and he makes winning plays, and he's so unpredictable, so it's hard for teams to scout him,” he said.
Russell is hoping to develop all of those traits, but there's one, above them all, which he hopes to obtain from his idol:
“Just the energy he has,” he said. “When he gets in the gym, I don't know, he's always ready. It's hard to come off the bench and be ready all the time. He's always ready, and that's a skill.”
