Pinterest D'Angelo Russell with his mother Keisha Rowe.
2019 has been a big year for D’Angelo Russell. 2 years after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, the Nets guard put together his best statistical season along with an All-Star appearance, averaging 21.1 points and 7 assists per game.
In addition, he has Brooklyn back in the postseason for the first time since 2015, as the Nets earned the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. They head to Barclays Center Thursday night to break a 1-1 series tie in the 1st Round against the 76ers.
Part of the reason Russell got to this point is a family that has pushed him towards success while shielding him from danger. Here’s what you need to know about D’Angelo’s family.
1. His Parents Keisha Rowe and Antonio Russell, Sr. Guided Him out of a Rough Louisville Neighborhood
D’Angelo Russell got the “ice water in my veins“ thing from his father, who used to say it all the time.
D’Angelo was born in Louisville on Feb. 23, 1996. As Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times reported, the Russells grew up in a rough part of the Kentucky city, as the neighborhood saw its 100th homicide as of the writing of her profile. This past January, the homicide rate in the city was down about 20% according to the Courier Journal.
As Ganguli writes, his mother Keisha Rowe was not going to allow her son to be involved in this life.
“If there was anything going on in the neighborhood outside, I’m the mother that’s out there trying to figure out what’s going on with no shoes on,” said Keisha Rowe, D’Angelo and Antonio’s mother. “It was like no this is not going to happen. You’re not going to get my boys. They’re not going to be criminals. They’re not going to be in prisons and jails and beating women and all this stuff.”
Said D’Angelo: “At the end of the day knowing right from wrong got me through a lot.”
This approach was backed up by his father Antonio, Sr.
“It was a lot of danger, I can say that, and it’s still going on now,” said Ellis Myles, who coached D’Angelo with the Louisville Magic AAU team. “I think it was him just always being gone, playing basketball. His father keeping him around the right people. Knowing that his son didn’t have to see the same things he had to see.”
One way Rowe wasn’t tough on her son? She wouldn’t let him play football, per an interview with D’Angelo by the Mike Truedell at the Lakers website in 2015.
We’re really close, too. My mom used to baby me. She was always like, ‘Don’t touch him,’ to my brothers, or try to keep me from playing football with them. I’d say, ‘Mom, yes I can!’ But if I had a scratch on me, she’d want to go to the hospital. She was overprotective of me.
2. His Parents Are Amicably Separated
According to Fred Kerber of the New York Post, Antonio, Sr. and Rowe “live apart on good terms.” Whatever their personal issues with each other might be, Antonio shared her philosophy on preparing D’Angelo for future success.
“He survived my dad,” brother Antonio said to Kerber with a laugh. “My dad growing up really instilled a lot of respect, morals and values into us and made us see a bigger picture — to want to be more than just staying in the west end of Louisville, which is very gang-related and drug-infested. My dad moved us out of the West End and showed us there is so much more to life.”
According to Ganguli, Rowe moved to Atlanta with D’Angelo’s brother LaShawn Gilliam, while Antonio, Sr. stayed in Louisville’s West End.
3. Antonio, Sr. Comforted His Son After Magic Johnson Traded D’Angelo from the Lakers in 2017
Two years ago, Magic Johnson trades D’Angelo Russell because he said he needed a leader.
Following his abprupt resignation last week, the Lakers are still looking for a leader.
In June 2017, Magic Johnson traded Russell to Brooklyn. He didn’t have kind words for the former No. 2 overall pick on his way out, saying that the then 21-year old lacked leadership abilities and didn’t make his teammates better.
Hearing these words from one of the league’s best-ever point guards was hard, but Antonio, Sr. told D’Angelo to use the words as fuel. Per NewsDay:
“D’Angelo and I had the conversation. I said, ‘You’ve got to understand this is Magic Johnson. We’re speaking of a basketball icon, a Hall of Famer saying you might not be elite. You need to take that as a lesson.’
“I could have said, ‘Magic shouldn’t have said it,’ but it was, don’t take it as a negative. Take it as a Hall of Famer giving him some constructive criticism. That’s exactly how we took it.”
A few years later, Russell became an All-Star and reached the playoffs. Meanwhile, Johnson stepped down as president of the Lakers after the franchise missed its 6th straight postseason.
4. Antonio, Sr. Was Arrested in 2015 for Drug Possession
D’Angelo Russell’s Father Arrested for Weed and Sizzurp http://t.co/46WZZMFtvB http://t.co/GvMXPz2RCR
Prior to D’Angelo’s rookie season, Antonio, Sr. was arrested for drug possession after a traffic stop. Renee Murphy and C.J. Daniels of WHAS11, the ABC-affiliate in Louisville, reported that police pulled over the elder Russell for not wearing his seat belt.
During the stop, he admitted to having marijuana and officers discovered a water bottle filled with a substance later identified as codeine. The police report indicated that he was charged with “possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence and having marijuana.”
Antonio, Sr. has been mentioned in several articles about D’Angelo since the arrest. It’s not clear what his punishment was for the crime.
5. He is Incredibly Close with His Older Brothers LaShawn and Antonio, Jr.
Before D’Angelo declared for the NBA Draft after his only season at Ohio State, he made one request to his brothers LaShawn and Antonio, Jr.: that they come with him to wherever he gets drafted. Antonio, Jr. recalled this to Ganguli.
“He said, ‘The only way I’m leaving is if y’all go with me. If y’all don’t go with me there’s no way I’m leaving.’”
This describes the extreme closeness the three brothers have.
Gilliam is Antonio’s age, two years older than D’Angelo, and shares a father with D’Angelo and Antonio. They played video games together, fought together and played basketball using a hoop made out of a milk crate at their grandmother’s house.
In the New York Post article, Antonio, Sr., who played collegiately at Northern Kentucky, described how D’Angelo grew into a better player through games with the brothers.
“I nudged him a little and he didn’t go down. It was like a 9-foot rim and he just went up and dunked on me,” said Antonio, now a senior at Northern Kentucky University. “I was in ninth grade playing with seniors, playing varsity, so I was like, ‘This can’t be real. My seventh-grade little brother did not just dunk on me.’ ”
D’Angelo has two other siblings: a brother named Tayshaun and a sister named Cloee.