Covert infidelity discovery missions, appearing extremely empathetic, commercial charisma. These are a list of certified talents that D’Angelo Russell has exhibited over the course of his tumultuous rookie season in the NBA. These are probably pretty good skills to have, but the only ones the Lakers organization likely cares about are the ones exhibited above.

Russell, who is in need of a stellar sophomore campaign to help remind everyone why he was so talked about in the first place, took a step in that direction yesterday with a game-winning 3-pointer in the Summer League, giving the Lakers the victory over the Sixers in what was one of the biggest match-ups of the offseason.

The initial storyline was obvious: #1 pick, perceived basketball prodigy and apparent heir to LeBron James, Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers, was facing off against Brandon Ingram, the Duke University sweet shooter considered to be such a developed offensive talent there was concern over whether or not Simmons was the right pick for Philadelphia.

However, Russell stole the show last night for all the right reasons. Even though he would afterwards tell J.A. Adande that he “played like sh*t”–much to Adande’s annoyance–the Lake Show’s got to be happy with the guy taking their reigns for now.

July 10, 2016