（2级，不接试译）‘This is where I’m supposed to be’: D’Angelo Russell’s basketball odyssey

The Timberwolves were not Russell’s first choice. They rarely have been for any player. They knew they had to pull out all of the stops to show Russell that there was more to Minnesota than cold weather and trips to the draft lottery. The welcome was warm enough to make Russell forget about the wind chill. It felt good. So good, that he fired up his camcorder.

“From what I’ve been through previous years to where I come from in childhood, people don’t show their love and support for you like this, at this magnitude (when you first arrive),” Russell told The Athletic. “People don’t do that. For the organization to put something like that together, for me to feel that love and support right away, I was just like, ‘This has to be documented.’ That was the first thing I thought of.”

From the projects of Louisville to a prospect factory in Florida. From a late-blooming recruit to a one-and-done lottery pick at Ohio State. From the heir apparent to Kobe Bryant to a national punchline in Los Angeles. From a redeemed All-Star in Brooklyn to an expendable place-holder with Golden State. Russell has been through so much in such a short period that he has had a hard time processing it all. He is a baller, for sure, but at times he has felt more like a swimmer, retreating beneath the water’s surface to keep plowing forward while the waves crash around him.

The longer he keeps his head underwater, the faster he swims. The criticism and scrutiny nothing more than muffled chortle off in the distance. The success and the cheers visible for mere seconds when his face turns.

“When I tell you about my career, it’s like I’m in the water and I take a breath,” Russell said, “then I see it and I go back in the water. I take a breath and then I see it again, and I’m right back in the water.”

After the theatrics of Hollywood, the business in Brooklyn and the layover in the Bay, what he wants more than anything is to find a home. Now firmly entrenched in Minnesota as one of the central figures of Rosas’s vision for a Timberwolves renaissance, Russell hopes he can finally stop swimming and come up for air.

Karl-Anthony Towns has watched his best friend bounce from city to city. He was on the phone with him daily during the lowest of low points in Los Angeles. He was at Barclays Center to surprise Russell for his first home playoff game with the Nets. He was on the helicopter recruiting trip last June when Russell spurned the Wolves for a max deal with Golden State.

“His whole career, you look at it and it feels like he wasn’t wanted, whether he put himself in that position or whatever the situation was,” Towns said in March. “It just never felt like he was wanted, and he could feel it.”

To be fair, there have been moments in each of his previous stops where things looked promising. Brooklyn gave him the direction and push that he needed. Golden State provided the contract that validated his standing in the league. But those good times proved fleeting.

Russell hoped that Los Angeles was going to be home when the Lakers drafted him second overall in 2015, one spot behind Towns. But he got caught in the purple and gold jet wash of Bryant’s final season, then was set adrift in the Bermuda triangle of NBA dysfunction: Swaggy P, a cell phone and an immature, 20-year-old point guard.

“I didn’t know how to be a professional and the guidance wasn’t there also,” Russell said. “I don’t blame anybody. I blame myself. It was really a blur to me, just in the sense that the things that I’ve been through ever since then.”

Most players drafted as high as Russell was are the central figures in their organization from Day 1. Game plans and practice routines are built around trying to develop those players into stars. The Lakers were fully focused on sending Kobe out in style.

“It was unfair to him,” said Jeff Boals, the head coach at Ohio University who coached Russell as an assistant at Ohio State. “He was the No. 2 pick headed to L.A. in Kobe’s swan song year. You’re playing for a coach in Byron Scott who really doesn’t like rookies to begin with. You’ve got Kobe in his final year and everything revolves around him.”

As Russell flailed and was ostracized during the Nick Young drama, he always had a straight-shooting ally in Towns.

“A lot of checkups, a lot of nights just helping him get through everything he went through,” Towns said. “I just think that there was a lot of conversations that weren’t comfortable that we had. A lot of times you just gotta be a brother and tell him what it is.”

The friends had long conversations about the image Russell was portraying and his ability to change it. They talked about the attention that comes with being a high draft pick and how quickly labels can be attached by the churning media machine, for better or worse. The headlines meant Russell’s name was worth something, Towns told him.

“It’s up to him to control his narrative and either fall for what everyone wants him to be to sell storylines or be who he truly is,” Towns said, “which is an amazing person, amazing brother, amazing friend, amazing family member, amazing basketball player.”

The Lakers shipped Russell to Brooklyn after his second season, using him as the bait to get the Nets to take on Timofey Mozgov’s albatross contract. In reality, the Lakers were happy to part ways with Russell as well, evident in Magic Johnson’s parting shots at his maturity as they planned to replace him with Lonzo Ball.

The organizational structure in Brooklyn was a welcome change from the disorder in Los Angeles. Nets coach Kenny Atkinson challenged Russell, keeping him on the bench early in his stay there before he was pressed into action due to injuries in the backcourt ahead of him. Those around Russell viewed the accountability-laced approach as similar to his experience in high school that jumpstarted his career.

“Brooklyn was a place that he needed as well as Brooklyn needed him,” Antonio Russell Jr., D’Angelo’s older brother, said. “They were able to mold each other and build each other up.”

Looking back on it, D’Angelo isn’t ready to give Atkinson all the credit. In his eyes, Atkinson only went to him as a last resort, when Caris Levert and Spencer Dinwiddie were injured.

“I’m not going to give it to Kenny,” he said. “I still don’t think he knew what he had, honestly. I don’t think he knew what I was capable of in the fourth quarter.”

He found out eventually and Russell started 81 games in his second season in Brooklyn, made the All-Star team and led the Nets to the playoffs. But when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant decided to team up in Brooklyn, it was time for him to pack up again.

“Everything was going right, finally has an All-Star year, he’s breaking out of the shell, showing his true potential, and it wasn’t good enough,” Towns said. “It wasn’t good enough to be here, you’re not wanted here, we’re going to get rid of you. That’s rough on anybody. It doesn’t matter how good, how popular you are.”

In some ways, Russell landing with Golden State was a bit of a fluke. Had Durant decided on any other franchise, Russell may very well have ended up with Minnesota last summer. Because Durant chose Russell’s team, it opened the door for a sign-and-trade deal between Golden State and Brooklyn that allowed the Warriors to avoid losing Durant for nothing.

Russell was all in on a plan that got him the biggest check possible, brought him to the gold standard of franchises in the league and would allow him to learn by the side of his favorite player, Steph Curry. Russell wanted to soak up all the knowledge he could from Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr. He wanted to feel what it was like to be in a championship organization.

And after four years of tumult and uncertainty, the Warriors offering a four-year, $117 million max offer over an offer in the $107 million range from the Wolves made it too much to pass up.

The Wolves thought they had him when they entered their free-agent meeting with Russell on June 30, but they never really saw Golden State coming.

“I remember going through the process and I was like, ‘If I go to Minnesota, I play with Karl and all the guys who will be there. I could potentially settle down and relax and unpack my bags,” Russell said. “But there’s something telling me you gotta go get every bit of money you’re worth right now.”

Before the ink was even dry on the contract, the rumors started to percolate that Russell was not long for Golden State. He would slide into the starting lineup with Curry while Thompson recovered from a torn ACL suffered in the NBA Finals. But once Thompson was healthy, it was hard to see how all of the pieces fit together. Even the cash-soaked Warriors printing money in the new Chase Center might get indigestion while paying a max player, one who was best with the ball in his hands, to be a sixth man.

“My whole thing was I’m gonna just learn from these guys,” Russell said. “Even if I don’t get to play with them (very long), I’m going to pick their brain as much as I can.”

The arranged marriage lasted all of 52 games. Curry broke his hand in the fourth game of the season, and the Warriors spiraled to the bottom of the West. The moment Russell became trade eligible in December, the chatter started building and building. Russell felt it. The Warriors felt it.

So when the day finally game in February and Russell was traded to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins, Russell initially viewed it as just another move to another city to play for another team. The latest in a long line of pit stops. The more he thought about it, and the more he saw the reaction from the Timberwolves and their fans, the better it started to feel.

“All these fans just look at him as not just a piece but the pillar,” Towns said. “I think this is the first time he feels like a pillar since high school.”

Russell’s flashy game and swagged-out style scream big city. The ink on his left forearm tells a different story, one of pride and struggle in the hometown of Muhammad Ali.

Russell’s younger days were spent in Park DuValle, a housing project just southwest of Louisville. It was nothing for D’Angelo and his brother Tone to hear gunshots in the middle of the night and sidestep needles in the parks on their way to the court. For two kids who didn’t know any different, they embraced the good and the bad.

“You could come outside in Park DuValle and you would see 35 kids at any moment. That became your family,” Tone said. “If your mom’s at work, you might be heating up a pizza in the oven. Or, my mom’s cooking today, you want to come over to my house? It made everybody feel like a family.”

Their parents split at an early age, but maintain a cordial relationship. Both were heavily involved with the boys throughout their childhood. Their father, Antonio Sr., moved out of the projects when D’Angelo was a seventh-grader, looking for a safer environment in which to raise them. Their mother, Keisha Rowe, would routinely bring them meals. D’Angelo played football and basketball through middle school, but narrowed his pursuit to hoops once he hit high school. The Russells had a cousin who starred at Trinity High, the top team in Louisville at the time. Russell played for Central and dreamed of one day taking his cousin down for the championship.

Russell’s roots in Louisville were so deep that when Montverde Academy, a basketball powerhouse in Florida that counts Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Luc Mbah a Moute and Dakari Johnson as alums, offered a spot on the team, he recalled at one point telling his father that he was thinking more about Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball award.

“He was like, ‘You know you can go win a national championship, and you want to win Mr. Basketball in the state of Kentucky?'” Russell said. “That’s apples and oranges there.”

Russell knew it was the right move. His high school coach had sent Rajon Rondo to Oak Hill Academy for his senior season. Even at 15 years old, Russell saw the opportunity sitting in front of him.

“That was the tough thing, was having to leave friends and family, the comfort place and going to this new place might’ve caused sadness,” Tone said. “But he knew what he was going for.”

Renowned Montverde coach Kevin Boyle rode Russell mercilessly in an effort to prepare him for the bigger stages that were ahead for him. Russell played sparingly as a sophomore while Boyle tested his mettle. Every day D’Angelo would call his brother to tell him he was coming home.

“He would say, ‘I’m killing these guys in practice,'” Tone said. “But he just wasn’t playing. I think Kevin Boyle was just trying to see how he was built as a person.”

It turns out that Boyle and D’Angelo’s father were communicating regularly. Antonio Sr. urged his son to stay the course, to take the punishment because that is what he needed. He needed an edge, and that’s what he got.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to him,” former Ohio State coach Thad Matta said.

Russell spent more than twice as much time in L.A. and Brooklyn than he did at Ohio State, but ask him when was the last time he truly felt at home and he quickly points to his unexpectedly brief but electrifying stay in Columbus.

He was good enough to get offers from major programs, but to hear him tell it, Russell didn’t have the gluttonous recruiting war that many of his skill level indulge in. Matta and Boals recruited him when he was still living in Louisville and stayed with him through Montverde. By the time Russell made his first official visit to Columbus with his father, took in a football game and toured the facilities, he was all in. Russell’s father urged him to consider other schools and take other visits just to be educated about the options, but Russell’s mind was made up.

“He had a big trust factor in Thad,” Boals said. “The blueprint was there. From Day One, he felt comfortable.”

Matta called him Doc (Russell’s initials are DR), telling him from the first time the two met that he had to shorten the name because he didn’t think he could get “D’Angelo” out of his mouth fast enough when he had to yell at him during practice. There was an easy, fast rapport, and Matta succeeded in doing what anyone who knows Russell well understands to be key: convincing him that he had Russell’s back.

“It’s funny because throughout his recruitment, these so-called experts kept pointing out flaws in his game,” Matta said. “Every time I’d sit and watch him play, he always won. He never lost. And he always made the right play down the stretch.”

The last thing on Russell’s mind when he arrived was that he was going to be gone seven months later. Russell was planning on being in Columbus for years, developing his game, immersing himself in the college life.

Matta still remembers the moment he knew Russell was a short-timer. Both Matta and Boals recited his stat line for a preseason scrimmage in West Virginia off the top of their heads like Russell had done it in the national championship game: 33 points, eight assists, shredding Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins’s famed full-court press, hitting the game-winning 3 on the final possession.

“I get on the bus and say, ‘Fellas, he’s out of here. We’ve got to find another point guard,'” Matta said to his assistants. “They were like, ‘Nooo, no.’

“I’m saying, ‘Fellas, I’ve never seen shit like that before in my life.'”

Russell went on to average 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists that season, hitting 41.1 percent of his 3s.

“They made me feel just like a normal student, like I was right here with everybody else,” Russell said. “There was no feeling like I was above. I never once felt like I was a top pick. I never once felt like I’m about to be a one-and-done guy. I was two feet into the university.”

And just like that, he was gone. But his time playing for the Buckeyes left such an impression on him that he keeps in close contact with Matta and Boals to this day. His financial advisers are based in Columbus as well and he routinely returns for events on campus.

“D’Angelo’s a relationship guy. He’s a trust guy,” Boals said. “When he knows that you believe in him and have confidence in him, he’s going to do whatever it takes to help you win. Fair or not, whatever it may be, his path is different than anyone else’s.”

Even after Russell turned the Wolves down last summer, Rosas remained steadfast in his pursuit of a point guard he believed fit exactly the team’s needs. In his first season on the job, Rosas was not hiding his desire to make bold moves and not take no for an answer. It was a philosophy honed in Houston, where the Rockets missed out on star after star until they finally landed James Harden in a trade with Oklahoma City in 2012.

At the time, Harden was the sixth man on the Thunder, a gifted scorer but nowhere near the offensive dynamo he has become. The Rockets empowered him, put the ball in his hands and he carried them into the upper echelon of the Western Conference. From the moment he arrived in Minnesota, Rosas knew he needed to make a splash move to pair an elite ballhandler with Towns if the Wolves were going to get out of their rut.

“Gersson thinks Russell is his Harden,” a Western Conference executive said in December when the trade talk started to circulate again.

Rosas has never compared Russell to Harden, one of the most unstoppable offensive forces the game has ever seen. Both are left-handed, with games built around tempo and changing speeds more so than unbridled athleticism. But that is where the comparisons end. Harden is bigger, stronger, more durable, and has weaponized his feel for the game like few have before him.

Russell has not yet shown the ability to consistently overwhelm an opponent the way Harden does, but Rosas sees a terrific passer with a knack for hitting big shots in big moments. Russell, now 24, is also the same age as Towns and Malik Beasley, an important factor for Rosas as he tries to build a team around Towns that has a chance to compete in the coming years.

They also believe that, like Harden, Russell has more to show than he has at this point in his career. It’s their job to help bring it out of him. In addition to Towns, Rosas was able to consult with assistant coach Pablo Prigioni and assistant GM Gianluca Pascucci, both of whom were in Brooklyn with Russell before coming to Minnesota. Kelan Martin, who was on a two-way contract with the Wolves and pulling significant playing time with the big club, grew up with Russell in Louisville.

The plan is to challenge Russell the way Boyle and Atkinson did while empowering him the way Matta did.

“Top-to-bottom, individual, family-wise, on the court, off the court, we’ve turned every stone to make sure that this is where he’s going to be,” Rosas said on the day Russell was introduced, “not only now but hopefully for the rest of his career.”

With so much familiarity in place, the Timberwolves were ready for him long before he arrived. The organization’s reputation is such that few players would ever choose the Wolves if they had options. Rosas and coach Ryan Saunders are trying to change that perception, prioritizing player wellness and connectivity to help them look past the snow and ice.

“One thing everyone in life, as humans, we all fight for is that feeling of want,” Towns said. “We want to feel wanted and loved. I think this is the first time in his professional career he’s felt that. I know he feels it. I think that that’s what’s made his arrival here in Minnesota so special to him and to his family.”

They don’t see him as a throw-in. They don’t see him as an emergency option. They see him as one of the principal components of a renaissance that has been long overdue. And they have not been shy in letting him know. Russell is a big fan of “Game of Thrones.” He likes to say he has ice in his veins when he makes a big shot. As part of his first promotional shoot with the team, they gave him a throne made of ice.

[quote]🧊 GAMEDAY IN MPLS 🧊 PIC.TWITTER.COM/77I9HVTVYW

— MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (@TIMBERWOLVES) MARCH 8, 2020[/quote]

When Russell tweeted “I love Minnesota,” the Wolves put it on a t-shirt and built a charitable campaign around it.

[quote]LOVE MINNESOTA?

LOVE MINNESOTA ENOUGH TO TWEET ABOUT IT?

LOVE MINNESOTA ENOUGH TO PRINT YOUR TWEET ON A T-SHIRT?

PURCHASE YOUR @DLOADING TWEET SHIRT, WITH NET PROCEEDS BENEFITTING @SHHANIMALRESCUE » HTTPS://T.CO/0VKFUFIQ5V PIC.TWITTER.COM/233O0O5JSL

— MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (@TIMBERWOLVES) MARCH 7, 2020[/quote]

Tone watched the organization throw its arms around his brother. He called their father in the early days after they arrived to tell him about the way D’Angelo was being embraced.

“It almost brought tears to his eyes,” Tone said. “Just seeing that, it’s just kind of breathtaking. Having someone want you as much as they did after being scarred in so many different ways is a new feeling. You almost don’t know how to respond to it.”

Russell swaps late-night text messages with Saunders while watching old NBA games during the COVID-19 hiatus. He was staying at Towns’ house in the suburbs when he was first traded, carpooling to downtown Minneapolis for games and practices, and is now looking to buy a home in the city he works in for the first time in his professional life.

When it was becoming more and more clear that his stop in Golden State was going to be a short one, Russell had long talks with his agent, Austin Brown, and his team at CAA. They asked him what he wanted.

“I want my own ship,” Russell told them. “Not saying this is me by myself. I want to be if we lose, a big part of it’s on me. If we win, it’s a great team effort that I was involved in. I wanted that, that position. I’ve been enjoying it knowing I could be here for the rest of my career if I take advantage of it.”

The Timberwolves believe the responsibility they are putting on Russell’s shoulders will lead to big things. They see his presence in the locker room as a boon for Towns, who needs help leading this team.

Before the league was shut down, and before Towns lost his mother, Jackie, to complications from COVID-19, the two friends would sit up late into the night at Towns’ home, sharing a bottle of wine and talking about how they were going to show everyone what they are capable of achieving.

“They can really talk to each other, sit down in a room and have real conversations and you know that’s coming from a good place,” Tone said. “That’s not coming from a place of envy or things like that. That’s coming from my brother. I see this and I don’t care if it makes you mad or vice versa. You need that from your guys.”

“I’ve always been one of those guys that tells D’Angelo, ‘That shit ain’t right,'” Towns said. “‘You’re not doing what you’re supposed to do.’ And I’d challenge him to be a better person, a better player. He’s a person who has all the talent in the world. But everyone needs a support system.”

Towns needs that as well. He hasn’t moved around the league like Russell has, but in some ways his NBA career has been just as volatile. The Wolves have had five lead executives and four head coaches during his four-plus seasons in the league. Jimmy Butler came and went. The only constant has been the losing. He has strong relationships with Rosas and Saunders, but he needs more than that.

Towns has needed a point guard like Russell who can space the floor and play the pick-and-roll. Someone he respects who can hold him accountable and vice versa. Russell also represents the organization’s latest effort in a 30-year search for a franchise point guard. Money squabbles shortened the stints for Stephon Marbury and Sam Cassell. Injuries slowed Terrell Brandon. Ricky Rubio had moments.

Now it’s Russell’s turn.

On Feb. 8, Russell climbed into the back of Towns’ white Range Rover with red rims and rode with his best friend to their first game as NBA teammates. They stopped for coffee, starting a routine they followed in the weeks before the league halted play. While they waited for their drinks to be filled, it slowly dawned on Russell that the situation they had all talked about for so long had become a reality.

“It’s like, ‘Bro, we’re really going to work right now,'” Russell told him. “I always say this to him and we have a little moment where it’s like, ‘Damn bro, this is real.'”

They both know how quickly things can change in this league. Russell has experienced enough of it for two careers and Towns has watched good vibes go bad with startling quickness. But the timing couldn’t have been better for the reunion. Russell has been yearning for stability, and now he can provide the kind of comfort that his friend needs after KAT lost his mother. They have been leaning on each other from afar for years. Now they stand shoulder to shoulder for what they hope is a very long time.

“For me to come here, this feels more at home to me,” Russell said, “like I could settle down, raise my family and unpack my bags.”

There are scouts, coaches and league observers who view the Towns-Russell pairing with skepticism. Both have fought the “empty stats” moniker at different points in their careers and everyone is asking about how good the Wolves can be defensively with those two as featured components.

The Timberwolves believe that once normalcy is restored and the NBA returns, KAT and D-Lo will bring out the best in each other.

“That is what he deserves for the type of player he is,” Prigioni said of Russell. “Now that comes with responsibility. You gotta do what you’re supposed to do every single day. Just build your season, your career one day at a time.”

Tone has watched his brother move from city to city, team to team. He saw a difference on that chilly night at the airport. As he watched D’Angelo step off the plane, it was “like a weight just lifted off of him.”

“I think it’s going to allow him to lift his shoulders up. You can stand proud here because this is home,” Tone said. “You know they’re believing in you, they’re trusting in you and it makes you want to give 130 percent knowing that you have someone going so hard for you in your corner.”

If anyone knows that nothing is guaranteed, it’s D’Angelo. He was the No. 2 overall pick in L.A. He was an All-Star in Brooklyn. He signed a max deal with Golden State. And yet, he has always been on the move, a swimmer who has to stay in constant motion to avoid sinking to the bottom of the pool.

For the first time in his professional career, he has an organization that is ready and willing to turn everything over to him. Russell comes to the Wolves with plenty of his own baggage and even more talent. Now maybe he can unpack it all and stay a while.

As he surveyed the scene at the airport on his first night in Minnesota through the LCD screen on his camcorder, Russell couldn’t shake the feeling that he was, finally, home.

“I’m like, OK,” he said, “this is where I’m supposed to be.”