Julius Randle is entering his first season with the Brooklyn Nets with big expectations attached, and he says the lessons he picked up early in his career still shape the way he approaches the game now.
Randle came up in a rebuilding environment with the Los Angeles Lakers, so the situation in Brooklyn is nothing new to him. More importantly, he had Kobe Bryant in the locker room and on the floor, and that experience left a lasting mark.
“Early in my career, I had the best example you can have in Kobe,” Randle said. “I feel like those lessons and just that example that he set for me has carried me throughout my career, to where I can be here Year 13 and I'm still trying to improve every single day.
“I get questions about Kobe all the time about what he was like on and off the court, how he worked, all those different things. It was the biggest blessing for me being around him and being able to carry those lessons into my daily life.
It's become a part of who I am; it's become a part of my fabric and I try to carry it that way. When you're around somebody that great and they teach you all that he's taught me, the biggest thing I can do is just pass it along.
So I try my best to do that.”
Bryant’s “Mamba Mentality” became part of his identity as he built a reputation for relentless work and a no-compromise approach every night. Randle saw that up close, including Bryant’s 60-point finish in his final game, which came after Bryant was already on his retirement tour when Randle first joined the Lakers.
Now Randle is more than a decade into his own NBA run, with multiple All-Star Game appearances and All-NBA Team selections on his résumé. He’s also helped alter the direction of the New York Knicks and played a role in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ rise in the Western Conference playoff race.
For a young Nets team still finding its footing, that matters. Randle can give Brooklyn a veteran voice while still bringing enough production to look like an All-Star-level player on a regular basis. And if he’s passing along even a fraction of what he learned from Bryant, the Nets’ younger players should have plenty to absorb.
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Porter Jr. has already acknowledged he needs to improve as a winning player and bring more than offense, which lines up with what Sean Marks has been emphasizing from the front office. Consistency, defense, rebounding and leadership all matter here, and how Porter Jr. handles that challenge alongside Julius Randle will go a long way toward telling the Nets whether this pairing can become part of something bigger. [Read more 🡒]