The NBA Draft is always one of my favorite nights to be a basketball fan and a fan of sports in general. So with that out the way, you already know what I was doing Thursday night. I was sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings getting ready to prepare for the NBA Draft. I knew Karl-Anthony Towns was going number one overall to the Timberwolves without a doubt about it, but I was still un-sure on the Lakers pick at number two.

In mock draft, I had the Lakers taking Jahlil Okafor. I would of course change it now if I still had the chance to re-think the pick, because I realized the Lakers don’t draft big man. They traded for Shaquille O’Neal, traded for Dwight Howard, signed Pau Gasol, signed Karl Malone, it just didn’t make sense for the Lakers to change now did it? They didn’t make a bad pick as well at number two, because they took the best player in the entire draft in former Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell.

Russell is a combo guard that can score in multiple ways and is improving each and everyday on defense and using his athleticism more and more. If you use the NBA’s all-time scoring list as a measure when it comes to deciding who the best scorers are ever, Kobe Bryant is the 3rd best scorer ever, trailing only Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabber. There is no one better in today’s NBA that can teach Russell how to score at the guard position other than Kobe Bryant and more than likely no one better. Russell himself wants to learn from Kobe Bryant, something he said following being picked by the Lakers.

Lakers head coach Byron Scott says that “He’s [Russell] going to have to prove to Kobe that he wants to be the best” That’s the case with almost every legendary player still playing. We can tell because of Paul Pierce’s comments on Otto Porter and others, and we are sure Kevin Garnett in Minnesota is asking the young guys their if they want to be great. Lakers point guard Jordan Clarkson helped give Lakers fans the breath of fresh air they needed last year making the all-rookie second them showing them there is hope in Los Angeles. He also loves the pick of D’Angelo Russell by the team.

D’Angelo Russell may never be as great as Kobe Bryant, but if all goes well between the two, I’m sure there’s a great chance they will both do whatever they can to make it happen, and we can be talking 10 years from now about their relationship and how it changed the Lakers future and all the jazz.

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