The Los Angeles Lakers traded former No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell just two years into his career because team president Magic Johnson wasn’t confident that he could be the leader the team needed at the time.
“D’Angelo is an excellent player,” Johnson told Baxter Holmes of ESPN. “He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader. I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with.