Golden State Warriors guard D'Angelo Russell's scandal with former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Nick Young turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the young Ohio State product, who then rerouted his focus into the game after he was isolated from the rest of his teammates, and even some of his NBA heroes. Close friend and draftmate Devin Booker recalls how Russell handled the wave of criticism after he recorded Young admitting to having cheated on then-girlfriend Iggy Azalea.
“That distanced him from the Hollywood life, honestly,” Booker told Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “It got him more locked in on work. Blessing in disguise. Eventually got him in a whole new situation. I think the situation in LA, after the incident, was toxic. It’s hard to play basketball like that.”
Russell had no immediate escape, as the news quickly swirled NBA circles and turn would-be friendly faces into nasty encounters.
“Man,” Russell sighed. “It was tough. I’d say it like this: It was tough because everyone I looked up to was kind of dogging me. I’d go into these arenas and meet these players for the first time, that I was a fan of, and they’d kind of side-shoulder me, like, nah bro.”
Russell then re-focused himself on the game, leaving everything else aside and honing his craft, something that would pay off after he was traded after the 2016-17 season to the Brooklyn Nets.
“It made it easy for me to be distant and go about work, treat it like it’s work,” said Russell. “I could just go in, don’t have to hi-bye everybody because most likely nobody wants to talk to me, anyway. So it became easy for me to focus on work. Then I saw the work pay off.”
The 6-foot-4 point man averaged 20 points per game before suffering an injury in his first year with the Nets, one that came full circle with an All-Star nod the following season and a four-year, $117 million contract to go with it this summer.