Through it all, Walton kept challenging Randle as he had no other player. “From that point on he started dominating the second-unit centers,” Walton said. He told Walton that he still didn’t agree with him, but he wanted to put his anger behind him. Walton and Randle spoke constantly, engaging in debate that could only have one winner. Kyles remembers then-Lakers veteran Corey Brewer telling her he wasn’t going to let Randle give up. Some felt the Lakers were trying to push him out. Randle grew distant at times during games. “He’s never ever not started in his whole life.” You gotta look at it like this, because you’re talking about a kid from the time he played in kindergarten and was playing, he started,” said Carolyn Kyles, Randle’s mother. Then he lost his starting job, a decision that pained Walton to make because of his personal affection for Randle. He changed his shape dramatically, proudly posting photos of his new chiseled physique on social media.Īfter all that hard work, he didn’t get a contract extension. The Lakers asked him to cut his body fat, so he attacked that with the help of a trainer, a nutritionist and his wife, who made sure all his meals were ready after each workout. A coaching change in 2016 reset the clock.Īfter a roller-coaster first season under Walton, Randle’s future remained uncertain. Then 2015-16 was dedicated to saying goodbye to Kobe Bryant and put all of the young Lakers’ development on hold. He broke his leg in the first game he played as a rookie in the fall of 2014 after being the seventh overall pick in the draft out of Kentucky. The 2016-17 season was actually the first season of Randle’s NBA career that the Lakers could focus on his growth. In the coming months, that question would test him more than he could have known. Things don’t go as perfect as they want it to go and they feel like they’ve done everything up to that point to prepare for it and that’s just life. “I think that’s when people get the most disappointed. “You put an extreme amount of hard work in and things don’t always go perfect,” Randle said that day. In December 2016, Randle sat in the lobby of a four-star hotel in Miami sharing the lessons he’d learned from different coaches. Randle is also showing what’s always been true about him: Cross his teammates, family or friends at your peril. “He’s still only, in my opinion, at the very beginning of what kind of player he’s going to be in this league,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. In the last few months, Randle has shown the league who he can be and probably earned millions in his next contract. It’s what helped him push through adversity early in the season to become a force for the Lakers and garner notice around the league. That’s what fueled him through the summer. He is always all about protecting his people.
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