There may never have been a rougher, non-injury-laden rookie season in recent history than D’Angelo Russell‘s 2015-2016 campaign. The former Ohio State standout was picked with the 2nd overall pick in last summer’s draft, and was expected to be molded into the guy that will take the reigns of the Lakers franchise–along with potentially Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook, if L.A. brass has their way–once Kobe departed (as it happens, he did just that in a flurry of buckets this April).
However, Russell underwhelmed for much of the season, which led to speculation that he could be included in trade packages this summer should the Lakers find themselves with a prime opportunity to land a free agent superstar. Fortunately for Russell, his play picked up towards the end of the year, but even that couldn’t stop the freight train of backlash he received after a video he recorded, featuring teammate Nick Young admitting to cheating on his fiance, ended up on the internet.
The fallout has been so bad, during the NBA Finals, Shaq referred to an NBA TV segment as “D’Angelo Russell Studios” after Andrew Bogut jokingly revealed some of Shaq’s lady friend dealings in Australia. Things couldn’t get worse, could they?
Wrong. Lil’ B just cursed the poor kid.
You would think Lil’ B, a Bay-area artist, would be all-in with California players. Wrong again. The rapper has–seemingly successfully–cursed at least two NBA players, James Harden and Kevin Durant, and D’Angelo Russell can add his name to that list. This couldn’t come at a worse time for the Lakers franchise. Seriously. Their second-year franchise player is now cursed, and they’ve got to use his potential to try to attract a cursed superstar. I mean, Lil’ B is more essential to league transactions at this point than Adam Silver.
