D’Angelo Russell doesn’t hold back when talking about his former Lakers head coach, Byron Scott, as he claims Scott was an idiot.
The Los Angeles Lakers struggled to return back to their glory days all throughout the 2010s. After having won back-to-back title in 2009 and ‘10, the Lakers shuffled between 6 coaches, including Phil Jackson who left in 2011, after eventually landing on Frank Vogel in 2019 to coach a LeBron James-led Lakers to a championship.
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Byron Scott was one of these 6 coaches and served as the bench boss for the ‘LakeShow’ in the 2014-15 season and the 2015-16 season. This made him the only coach D’Angelo Russell would play for in the first yeas of his career as a Laker. It’s safe to say by looking at their records that Scott was no genius with the clipboard.
You could argue that the talent the Lakers had at the time from a young D-Lo to a young Brandon Ingram, trickling down to an abysmal contract that gave Timofey Mozgov $64 million, was not good enough. However, a record of 38-126 in those two seasons is downright unacceptable, especially when you’re a storied franchise, like the Lakers.
D’Angelo Russell calls Byron Scott an idiot and claims Scott could not coach when with the Lakers.
D’Angelo Russell showed flashes of what he could become when with the Lakers. Everything from clutch moments to somewhat elite shot-making led to D-Lo rising up the ranks in the hierarchy of NBA guards. He would even make an All-Star team in 2019. Unfortunately, according to Russell, Byron Scott derailed a lot of what could’ve been for him.
In regards to Scott pulling Russell from close Lakers games, Russell believes he did so to stir up a bit of controversy and get his name in the tabloids. “I just think he was malicious for no reason. He’s a solid man. But as a coach, he was bad. He was just bad at his job,” said the former no.2 overall pick.
In all fairness, D’Angelo Russell would do nothing to help mend their ‘tough love’ relationship. Russell himself admits that he would go out of his way to avoid high-fiving the coaching staff when pulled from a game he wanted to stay in. “I was young, I used to do all kinds of sh*t to avoid talking to him.”
D-Lo’s averages would jump up a bit after Scott’s termination as a Laker head coach as the guard would receive nearly 2 more touches per game and would put up nearly 16 points a game, as opposed to his 13.5 in his rookie season.
