LOS ANGELES – The glare from the camera was overwhelming, then it became a nuisance, and finally D’Angelo Russell had to take the situation into his own hands. Instead of covering his face, Russell placed his left mitt on the LED light atop that infuriating camera and held it there until he was ready to continue the interview. If there ever were a metaphor for Russell’s rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers, it came in that five-second exchange when he got tired of being annoyed by the light, got tired of accepting it and took control of his situation.

No team invites more scrutiny than the Lakers, a franchise that refuses to let anyone hide or move along quietly. Russell invited the glare before the draft, when he practically begged the Lakers to take him No. 2 overall, fully accepting the attention that came with it. In his first season in purple and gold, Russell has dealt with having his initial development stunted by the team’s focus on a proper sendoff for the retiring Kobe Bryant, an embarrassing benching, and lately, a resurrection that has reminded fans why the organization invested so much of its future in him. The Lakers’ season is lost, but in Russell, they are beginning to see promise.

View photos D'Angelo Russell turns the corner Tuesday night. (Getty Images) More

“When you come to the Laker franchise, it puts way much more on you as a player. Once you’re a Laker, you’re always going to be among the cream of the crop. I wanted that,” Russell told The Vertical. “I wanted to embrace it and that’s what I’ve been trying to do, because it can make you or break you. And adversity sets in, when you go through hard times, being a Laker, like me not starting being the No. 2 pick, everybody is like, ‘He’s not starting, he’s a bust.’ And I didn’t really take advantage of the opportunity that I had. Now that I have the opportunity, I’ve been showing just a little bit of what I can do and what I can make happen for myself. That’s all that it’s about.”

Ever since he left behind his days as a teenager on Feb. 23, the 20-year-old Russell is starting to become a more dependable offensive weapon and a colorful showman. Russell has scored at least 21 points in six of his past seven games, including a career-high 39 points in a win over Brooklyn on March 1 that saw him point at his left arm and cockily shout to fans inside Staples Center, “I have ice in my veins.”

Since then, Russell won an individual duel in an upset win Sunday over Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, which prompted the reigning MVP to declare on his social media app, Slyce, that the lefty point guard “has [a] total skill set. Will be great for this league going forward.” Russell then had a game-high 27 points in Tuesday’s Kobe-less 107-98 win over the Orlando Magic, keeping his showboating in check with the exception of shouting at the basketball after tossing a no-look dish to teammate Brandon Bass for a dunk.

“It just kind of clicked for me,” Russell told The Vertical. “The coaching staff, they showed a lot of belief in me, because they know what I’ve been working on. So the confidence is growing when you’ve got a guy like Kobe always giving you positive energy, it makes it even better.”

After what felt like a season-long tussle with Lakers coach Byron Scott, Russell was re-inserted into the starting lineup after the All-Star break. Scott was reluctant to just give Russell command of the team, taking a tough love approach that left Russell frustrated and baffled. The approach differed from how Scott had previously handled All-Stars Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving when they were rookies, but Scott said Paul and Irving were much more advanced in how they grasped the offense and adapted to the NBA game.

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