Early in the offseason, Tim DiFrancesco flew into D’Angelo Russell’s hometown of Louisville for a few days of training.
The Lakers’ Strength and Conditioning Coach didn’t touch down in Kentucky until late at night and messaged Russell that he understood he’d rather wait until the next morning to start..
But the 20-year-old wasn’t having any of that.
“He was like, ‘No way. Why wait? Where are we going? Let’s get this work in,’” DiFrancesco said. “That’s something you can’t teach. You can only hope that the guy on the other end that you’re working with has that willingness to get work whenever, wherever, however.