It would have been normal for D’Angelo Russell, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, to play worse in the weeks before the NBA trade deadline.

Russell probably couldn’t look at his phone without seeing his name in yet another rumor linking him to teams like the Brooklyn Nets, the Atlanta Hawks, the Toronto Raptors, and more. For a short time, it looked like Russell would be dealt almost certainly.

Russell, on the other hand, made that stretch of basketball the best of his career. Russell scored 24.0 points and 6.5 assists per game in the 13 games before the deadline. He shot 46.6 percent of the time and left 88.5 percent of the time. As a shot and a player, he wasn’t awake. He has also not slowed down since the trade deadline. In the three games for the Lakers since February 8, he has scored 30 points and set a new career-high with 17 assists. 

Russell said that the last few weeks before the deadline were hard for his family and friends, but it didn’t bother him, and the results, according to Melissa Rohlin of Fox Sports, spoke for themselves:

“To be honest, everyone around me, like my family and friends, was kind of freaking out for me,” Russell told FOX Sports. “And I think about that place rarely.” It was wake up and go to work for me. I stayed in that moment for a while. It let me get into a groove and just flow through basketball, you know?” 
The Lakers guard talked about how he was able to tune out the noise and keep his mind on being his best on the court:

“Guys come in and care about their percentages and all that, and then they have trouble,” Russell told FOX Sports. “When I stopped worrying about it, I played the best basketball I’ve ever played.” 

Many players may have lost faith in their team because of the rumors, but Russell knows that basketball is a business and still wants to help the Lakers win games:

Russell was thrilled to still be a Laker. “Hell yeah,” he said. “I’ve been having fun. The power is good. I like living in L.A. But I’d like to be where people want me to be. I’m fine if they don’t want me. I’m leaving. To be honest, I’ll play in Detroit. In other words, I just want to be liked. But yeah, I did want to be here.”

Russell has grown up a lot since his last two stints with the Lakers. He has moved around a lot, which could have made him a tough player to work with. Instead, it made him a player who knows how to run a business while always giving his all to the team he was on. 

It was almost impossible for the Lakers to move him away because of how well he’s been playing. His play has helped turn around the season.