LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell made a pretty bold statement this week.

The No. 2 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft posted a tweet—that he soon deleted—calling retired NBA veteran Tracy McGrady the greatest of all time (GOAT).

The former Ohio State All-American’s tweet went viral quickly and brought about some serious backlash from loyal Lakers fans.

In a recent interview with Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, Russell had this to say in his defense, “There’ a lot of spoiled Lakers fans. I wasn’t downgrading Kobe at all. I was just watching a highlight tape of Tracy McGrady and I got excited. I tweeted and the whole state of California went crazy.”

In the tweet Russell said McGrady “might have been” the GOAT to which Lakers star Kobe Bryant responded with a sleeping emoji.

https://twitter.com/kobebryant/status/632367332262711296

Although the 19-year-old didn’t mean anything personal toward his teammate, Lakers fans seemed to take it exactly that way. Bryant is on a short list of players that can actually be considered as the best to ever play the game.

Russell struggled during a short NBA Summer League stint where the Lakers only won one of their five games in Las Vegas. He started every game and averaged 11.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, but averaged 5.2 turnovers per game.

Despite the shaky start this summer, Russell has all the tools to be a great guard in this league and although head coach Byron Scott may not have “officially” made the decision to name Russell as the team’s lead guard, there’s no reason to believe any other possibility at this point if the former five-star recruit continues to progress over time.

Lakers training camp is set to begin next month.