Jan 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell (1) shoots against Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins (left) during the first quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren

There have always been some discussions about media coverage of sports figures, and the last few years have seen particular pushback from some of those athletes. With rising amounts of athlete podcasts and athlete-produced documentaries, in addition to social media and the platforms it brings, there are many chances for those athletes to get their feelings out.

And one of the latest examples there came from Los Angeles Lakers’ guard D’Angelo Russell after he scored 28 points in a 145-144 double overtime win over the Golden State Warriors Saturday:

It’s understandable why Russell might want to weigh in on the trade discussions around him. Those have certainly been prominent in recent weeks, and they’ve been notable throughout his NBA career to date. The Lakers selected him with the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and he played for them from 2015-17, but was sent to the Brooklyn Nets that summer (along with Timofey Mozgov) for Brook Lopez and the rights to Kyle Kuzma.

Since then, Russell has played for Brooklyn (2017-19), Golden State (2019-20), and the Minnesota Timberwolves (2020-23). He returned to Los Angeles in a trade last February.

Russell is averaging 17.1 points and 6.1 assists per game in 30.5 minutes per game across 43 games (36 starts) this season. So his strong year goes beyond just this performance. But this was certainly a notable showing from him. And while even good performances don’t necessarily remove trade discussion, it is notable to see Russell question that trade talk in the wake of that. We’ll see where that goes for him and the Lakers.