D'Angelo Russell admits he tuned out head coach Kenny Atkinson upon arriving with the Brooklyn Nets, largely in part from former experiences and situations that played out in his past. Atkinson had a reputation as a hard ass, a coach that is often keen to detail and picks at the issues in film sessions.
Atkinson had Russell come off the bench for parts of his first Nets season. On some nights Russell will get only 14 minutes, without any explanation. In others, he'd play starting minutes off the bench, which would also frustrate him after seeing his own potential.
“I wasn’t playing in the fourths,” Russell told Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Every film session was about me. It was so weird. I remember talking to Kenny and he’d say ‘cream will rise to the top.'”
Russell initially tuned him out, much like he did with critical coaching with former helmsman Byron Scott with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I’m like, nah, man. Pssh,” Russell said. “You got favorites, dude. Out of all these people here, I’m like, clearly I should be playing. He just never would give me anything.”
Though he would soon learn he was being tested by Atkinson, as veterans DeMarre Carroll and Jared Dudley were quick to catch on.
“They’d be like, yo, he’s testing you,” Russell said. “They’re testing you. It’s a test. They’re watching how you handle it, how you act. So then I started getting into the bench celebrations.”
Russell would become a bona fide starter the next season, and even the No. 1 option on offense once Caris LeVert went down to injury — an opportunity that catapulted him into his first All-Star selection.
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