The Los Angeles Lakers are hard at work preparing for the NBA Draft, which is quickly approaching on June 21. With the 25th and 47th picks, they have to be prepared to choose from a wide variety of prospects, and with that in mind, they recently brought in another group of prospects that included Cal big man Marcus Lee.
Sometimes, the world of professional basketball can be a small one, and this happens to be one of those times. Lee played for Kentucky before transferring to Cal, and spent his freshman season alongside current Lakers power forward Julius Randle.
After his workout in Los Angeles, Lee was asked about his history with Randle and explained how physical Randle was, even back then:
“Julius doesn’t know how big he actually is. He plays, goes like a guard and goes at you, and you’ll get a slight shoulder in your mouth and you wouldn’t ever know. And you’ll walk out of practice, ‘How did I get a busted lip? Oh, that’s what happened.’ That’s what really great about him. He’s not doing it on purpose, it’s how he plays. That’s why I enjoyed playing with him.”
Randle has always played an aggressive brand of basketball, which he used to put together a career-best season this past year in Los Angeles.
Lee explained that, despite his Kentucky team going their separate ways, they players still stay in touch:
“With that team, we always stayed really close. Between the Harrison twins, us, Willie, Julius, we all stayed really close together because we’ve been through a lot together. Throughout that year we dealt with a lot of adversity, we handled it, and we came out together.”
For now, Lee is not projected to be selected in the 2018 NBA Draft according to ESPN. However, anything can happen on draft night, and even if he’s not selected Lee could get picked up on a Summer League team.
As for Randle, the Lakers will have a decision to make when he hits restricted free agency on July 1. He’s expressed a desire to re-sign with the team, which head coach Luke Walton is also hopeful for.
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