D'Angelo Russell Makes Mistake of Asking Kobe Bryant to Pay Fine He Earned Celebrating Bryant's First Dunk of 2015

By D.J. Byrnes on December 18, 2015 at 12:31 pm
Kobe Bryant and D'Angelo Russell: Laker bosses.
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The biggest sign yet Kobe Bryant should already be retired is it's headline news when he dunks.

But here we are cheering an unrepentant sociopath as he takes a final lap of NBA arenas as if the 37-year-old's decrepit game wouldn't revile his 18-year-old former self.

For one play on Thursday night, however, Bryant turned back the clock to 2013 against the Houston Rockets:

Routine by NBA standards, but still not shabby for a 37-year-old dad with bad knees that's returning from an Achillies rupture. It was most noteworthy because it was Mamba's first dunk of the 2015 season, a feat which judging their reaction the Lakers hadn't even seen in practice:

That's former Ohio State star D'Angelo Russell returning from a quick celebratory jaunt down the baseline in the last frame. The move earned him a technical foul. Silk's reaction was only human.

From espn.com:

At first, Russell thought, "How much is that? How much am I going to be fined?"

Like any good rookie, he turned to a veteran for assistance. Like any good sociopath, Kobe Bryant let him twist in the wind:

Then he ran up to Bryant.

"Hey man, you've got to pay my tech on that one," Russell told him.

Bryant said he replied, "Meh, you ran the baseline on your own free will."

The Lakers fell to the Rockets on the night, 107-87, sending L.A. to 4-22 overall. D'Angelo Russell, again coming off the bench, finished with two points, four rebounds, seven assists and a new celebration strategy:

"I told him that the next time he does something exciting, I'm just going to do this," Russell said, holding up two fingers. "You got two years left in you if you do something like that."

Russell should hold up one finger, as in "I only have one year left with you as a teammate." 

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