The NBA Draft starts on Thursday. Ben Simmons, arguably the no. 1 draft pick, was featured in a Foot Locker commercial where he got advice from 2015’s top rookies. Of course, plátano power Karl-Anthony Towns, who made NBA history by becoming the first Latino to win the league’s Rookie of the Year award, appears.
Simmons goes around the horn with Karl Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, and D’Angelo Russell, asking for advice in his rookie year. “Getting drafted doesn’t mean a thing,” Anthony Towns says. “Now the real work starts. This isn’t college. This is a grown man’s league.”
Booker agrees with Anthony Towns, but when Simmons asks Russell for advice, Russell responds Got Milk?-style. “Got a phone?” Russell wonders.
Simmons hands Russell the phone, and he proceeds to throw it out the window and into the ocean waters. “Trust me,” Russell tells Simmons.
The bit was an allusion to the controversy Russell was embroiled in with the Los Angeles Lakers after he recorded a private conversation between him and Nick Young that surfaced online. Russell was isolated by his teammates following the scandal.
Good on Russell, though, for being cool with Foot Locker running with the controversy.
Simmons is expected to be selected by the Sixers, who have the no. 1 draft pick. But if they decide not to (which they shouldn’t), Simmons and Russell could end up teammates, since the Lakers have the second pick in the draft…unless Russell is traded.