During the 2015-16 season, Los Angeles Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell filmed shooting guard Nick Young admitting that he cheated on his fiancée, Iggy Azalea. Russell and Young were close friends before this all went down.
Russell filmed the video without Young's consent, though. The video somehow got leaked to the public and all hell broke loose on the Lakers:
After the video got out, Lakers players shut Russell out by making him sit alone at breakfast, per ESPN.
The resulting tension in the Lakers' locker room was among the factors that contributed to L.A.'s 48-point loss to the Utah Jazz just a few days later:
Sources told ESPN that some teammates' trust in D'Angelo Russell is eroding after a video surfaced in the past week that shows Russell recording a private conversation between himself and teammate Nick Young. Young does not appear to realize he is being taped.
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 fans booed Russell during pregame intros at Staples Center against the Miami Heat on March 30, 2016.
The lefty was never able to regain the trust of his teammates in Los Angeles. The Lakers were a terrible team that season as it is. The Russell-Young beef just made things even worse:
The Lakers ended up trading Russell to the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2017 after drafting him with the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft out of Ohio State.
President of basketball operations Magic Johnson said the franchise needed a leader at the point guard position. The Hall of Famer selected Lonzo Ball out of UCLA with the second pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Russell was supposed to be the next superstar for the Lakers after Kobe Bryant retired. However, he was only able to play in 143 games with the team due to everything that happened behind the scenes with Young.
Russell averaged 14.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists in his two seasons with the Lakers. He has since played for the Nets, Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves.
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