Last week, a video surfaced online showing Los Angeles Lakers swingman Nick Young discussing sleeping with a young woman, this of course is a problem considering that he is engaged to Iggy Azalea. ESPN went on to confirm that the person he was speaking to, and secretly recording him was Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell, who the team hopes will succeed Kobe Bryant as the franchise’s next superstar.
Today, ESPN has reported that Russell’s teammates are not pleased with the recording, seeing it as betrayal and have even gone as far as to shun the 20-year-old.
At a recent breakfast meeting, one source said, no Laker would sit with Russell at his table. The source added that, in another instance, Russell came into the locker room and sat next to guard Lou Williams, who got up and walked away.
“It’s bad,” one team source told ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne. “It’s about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there’s no trust.”
Lakers coach Byron Scott shared “This was a prank gone wrong,” but it did not nothing to help the struggling franchise that currently sits at 15-59. After the surfacing of the video, the Lakers were routed by the Utah Jazz 123-75, with that 48-point margin matching the team’s worst loss in franchise history. For what it’s worth, Russell scored only 5 points on 2-of-11 shooting.
Young’s fiance even chime in on Twitter after she noticed Russell was trending online.
The rest of Twitter seemed to also have fun with the situation.
D'Angelo Russell when he enters the Laker locker room pic.twitter.com/nbGjp2Xndo
— Rana ッ (@ranassi27) March 30, 2016
D'Angelo Russell when none of his teammates want to be around him after what he did to Nick Young pic.twitter.com/2sz04GuRxG
— KrispMelo (31-44) (@New_Tape_City) March 30, 2016
Nick Young should’ve known better. Pretty obvious D’Angelo Russell is always recording when he’s around him. pic.twitter.com/ARFQMPgxHI
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) March 30, 2016
Kobe dodging D'Angelo Russell like pic.twitter.com/kOdruRo8X3
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 30, 2016