Dallas Mavericks point guard D’Angelo Russell has always been a bit of a style icon. He, in fact, won the GQ NBA Style Showdown Competition back in 2019. Needless to say, his off-court personality bleeds into his game, and even though there are days when the Warriors faithful regret the nature of his game, when Russell pulls it off, his style of play is a sight to behold.
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As Russell has often aptly put it himself, ‘there’s ice in his veins.’ It’s something his father told him growing up, to keep his nerves under control for the big moments. Fair to say, it’s worked out rather well for him so far.
After all, he is not the most athletically gifted, so to be pulling off some of the things he does requires a level of ingenuity and a sense of unpredictability to go with his creative offensive moves. Of course, over the years, he has also matured a lot, as has his game. Russell recently opened up about it on his podcast and revealed what influenced him to play the way he did in the first place.
“I used to be like Jason Williams,” he said, adding, “flashy like regular pass, behind the back! Regular bounce pass, no look. Nuh uh! Fast break, backboard. If I would have seen what Steph was doing at a young age, I would have been (imitates shooting one through the net) and turn around.”
“I would have been part of that trend of what we are seeing. So, I don’t know. I was always just talented and flashy. And then I started realizing you can’t do that all the time and that’s when I started finding my own little box,” the Warriors star noted.
Of course, it took him a few years to figure it all out. More than a few years, after all, he had never played point guard until he got to the highest level. “I got to college and started playing it and started playing point when it mattered and then was playing shooting guard and then playing off guard, whatever that means,” he added.
Well, he’s got it now. Hopefully, he can dial back the flash whenever needed and just do the job for the Warriors as the new NBA season closes in on us.
