Two-time NBA champion Kentavious Caldwell-Pope admitted he felt hurt after the Lakers traded him to the Wizards

Just after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope conquered his first NBA title with the Lakers during the 2020 bubble, he was traded from Los Angeles to Washington. In a recent interview, the shooting guard admitted to have felt hurt after he left the purple and gold squad as part of the infamous Russell Westbrook trade, but eventually found his way again. 

Today, the 30-year-old is a two-time champion after his latest season with the Nuggets, and he assures it’s all in the past.

“When (the Lakers trade) happened, I was a little hurt, no doubt about that,” he admitted. “But I had to move on. I thought I was gonna be there (with the Lakers) for a while, especially after the championship. But it didn’t go that way. I felt like at the end of the day, business is business.

“I got a call from my good friend Brad (Beal, the day before the trade went down), and he just asked me how I would feel about playing with him. I’d (known) him since we were 15, and that’s one thing we always talked about was playing with each other. And then the next morning, it happened.”

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope admitted to being hurt when he found out the Lakers had traded him.https://t.co/eU9XWhk866 pic.twitter.com/4UP8gixd6P

— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) July 11, 2023

In the same interview, Caldwell-Pope was asked if celebrating both championships felt different from each other, especially considering the fact that his first title was earned during the 2020-pandemic bubble.

“It felt good,” he said about winning his ring with the Lakers. “The first one, didn’t get a chance to experience as much, the parade, experiencing it with the fans and stuff like that. But the second one was great, being able to do that with my family and being able to experience the parade.”

Naturally, he was asked if he felt any added motivation confronting the Los Angeles squad in the Western Conference Finals.

“No, we just had, you know, me and a couple of old friends, we texted before. Even just meeting in the Conference Finals, we had some words then, you know like brothers. But no, it was fun just to play against them and also just go through them to get to the championship,” he assured.

New Lakers signing D’Moi Hodge says he models his playing on Kentavious’ style and personality

After going undrafted in the 2023 NBA draft, D’Moi Hodge signed a two-way contract last week in Los Angeles.  Just recently, he scored 16 points (on 6-of-11 shooting) along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks against the Charlotte Hornets in Summer League action.

After the contest, the 24-year-old admitted that he’s felt encouraged to emulate Caldwell-Pope’s style of play. Let’s take a look at Kentavious’ highlights from his championship season with the Nuggets:

“I really like KCP,” Hodge admitted. “I met him like two days ago and it was really nice meeting him in person, he actually knew who I was so it was just great to meet somebody like that.

“I met him outside, I was walking, and he was on IG and he pulled up a picture of me and him and he was like ’this is you?’ And I was like ‘yeah.’ He was like ‘I’ve been doing my research’ and he was giving me some advice and stuff so that was really cool.”