D’Angelo Russell hopes to stay in Golden State
SAN FRANCISCO >> After D’Angelo Russell signed a $117 million contract last summer, he decided to stop putting it off: He would finally buy his first couch.
He might be comfortable buying furniture, but not yet enough to invest in property. Even though his deal with the Warriors runs through 2023, he rented a mansion in San Francisco’s Diamond Heights neighborhood, where he lives as a minimalist by NBA standards.
Moving for the third time in four years has taken a toll on someone who yearns for stability. Though he has heard the relentless speculation that Golden State would be better off trading him, the league’s only journeyman All-Star hopes he’s found a long-term home.
Since high school, Russell, 23, hasn’t been in one place for more than two years. His three years at Montverde Academy were followed by a single year at Ohio
State. He was drafted by the Lakers in 2015, traded to Brooklyn in 2017, and then spurned by the Nets in 2019.
Time after time required to restart, his Twitter biography reads, “Loading…”
In less than three months with the Warriors, Russell has found an environment that encourages his strengths. He is continuing to put up prolific stats, but has also become a mentor to several young players while trying to expand his game to complement Golden State’s championship core.
“I would love for this to be home,” Russell said from his chair in the Warriors’ San Francisco practice facility. “I have a four-year contract. I would love to be here even three years. That would set my record.”
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A room in Diamond Heights is dedicated to Russell’s hero, Muhammad Ali — as if the tattoo outside his right calf of the legendary boxer wasn’t enough.
“From Louisville, man. Muhammad Ali, dawg,” Russell said. “We don’t make it out, so we got to go through the fire to get a little daylight.”
D’Angelo and his older brother, Antonio Jr., grew up with their mother and father in Louisville’s rough West End, a neighborhood filled with corners promising casual violence and gangs capable of ensnaring the most innocent. Getting a job at the local Ford factory is considered making it.
“It’s a city filled with settling,” Antonio Jr. said.
When D’Angelo was 12, his father, Antonio, moved the family to Valley Station, a suburb in Jefferson County. Russell left Central High after his freshman year to attend Montverde Academy in Florida, which is where he last felt settled.
He blossomed into a fivestar recruit and committed to Ohio State. When he signed his letter of intent, he planned to stay more than one year. And who knows? Maybe even get inducted into the Buckeyes’ Hall of Fame.
After averaging 19.3 points and five assists per game, earning consensus first-team All-America honors and leading the Buckeyes to an NCAA tournament berth, the NBA beckoned. Russell loved college, but he began to surface as a lottery pick on draft boards.
“If you look at his year at Ohio State, it’s one of the best ever,” said Jeff Boals, his assistant coach with the Buckeyes. “When he goes back, he’s as remembered as anybody.”
Russell asked his older brother to come with him to wherever he was drafted. Nearly five years later, he hasn’t lived apart from him during his career, from Los Angeles to Brooklyn to San Francisco.
Through his travels he’s bought three dogs, the newest of which is Nino Brown, a 1-year-old Boston Terrier named after Wesley Snipes’ drug-dealing character in “New Jack City” that is small enough to travel.
Russell’s inner circle also includes his closest friends. Suns guard Devin
Booker, whom he met as a high school freshman at the Nike Elite 100 camp in St. Louis, Mo., talks to Russell nearly every day. They’ve both signed maximum NBA contracts, but their hangouts are still reminiscent of when they’d sneak out of the hotel after curfew to buy snacks at a nearby gas station and daydream about their NBA futures.
“We always talk about how our paths have been different,” said Booker, who has been with the same team his entire career. “If you have a conversation with him now, he’s in a whole different headspace than he was four years ago.”
Intensely loyal to those close to him, Russell can sometimes seem aloof to outsiders. That’s because of a pivotal moment in Russell’s rookie season when a video was leaked from his cellphone of teammate Nick Young, at the time engaged to rapper Iggy Azalea, discussing other women he’d been with.
Though who leaked the video is still a mystery, the fact that it came from Russell’s phone triggered a media firestorm that portrayed him as immature. In the 2017 news conference announcing a trade that sent Russell to the Nets, Lakers president Magic Johnson said, “What I needed was a leader.”