NBA Rumors: Los Angeles Lakers Shunning D’Angelo Russell Because Of Inappropriate Video

NBA rumors are swirling around D’Angelo Russell. According to ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard secretly taped a conversation with Nick Young. Now that the video has surfaced, his teammates have decided to shun him because he violated the trust that should exist from guys that play basketball together. The crisis is an exclamation point during a season that has been called one of the most disappointing ones in the history of the Lakers.

For whatever reasons, D’Angelo Russell decided to record a private conversation between himself and Nick Young. Russell asked Young about being with other women recently. Young is engaged to Iggy Azalea, a rapper from Australia. Their relationship has received a ton of attention from gossip websites such as TMZ over the past year. Russell even asked the 30-year-old Young about a 19-year-old girl that he was seeing. Young appeared to be oblivious to the fact that he was being filmed by Russell.

On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers were destroyed by the Utah Jazz in a 48 point loss. The humiliating moment was attributed to the fact that the locker room was upset with D’Angelo Russell for what he had done to Nick Young. The Jazz aren’t a bad team by any means, but the Lakers should not be losing to them by that wide of a margin, even if this is one of the worst rosters that the franchise has ever constructed.

Interestingly enough, Nick Young was not with the Los Angeles Lakers when they were decimated by the Utah Jazz. The team stated that he had some sort of ailment, but with the emergence of this controversial video, the belief is that management simply wanted to keep him away from D’Angelo Russell. Young was recently involved in a controversy when he and Jordan Clarkson were accused of sexually harassing a woman and her mother at an intersection in Hollywood.

Since it is a pretty sensitive situation, Los Angeles Lakers management has opted to avoid getting involved. They’re upset with D’Angelo Russell for doing something so immature, but they don’t want to publicly admonish him for fear of what it will do to his confidence. Lakers head coach Byron Scott had been criticized all season long for being overly strict with Russell, but he now appears to have been in the right.

Teammates are avoiding D’Angelo Russell, which is never a good situation. The 20-year-old guard recently ate at a table alone during a breakfast meeting because everyone refused to sit next to him. Lou Williams is said to be especially disgusted with Russell. There are reports that state that Williams got up from his seat in the locker room when Russell sat down next to him.

In the big picture, this might hurt the Los Angeles Lakers later on this summer when free agency begins. NBA players, especially veterans, might be hesitant to sign with the team because they already have a distrust with D’Angelo Russell. The Lakers might also lose their own free agents because some of them might not want to share a locker room with Russell. Jordan Clarkson, for example, could walk away in free agency.

D’Angelo Russell has made a ton of mistakes on the basketball court during his rookie year in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers can live with those because they are going to help him become a much better player down the line. His big mistake in the locker room, though, is a harder thing to swallow because it shows just how immature that Russell is as a human being. Nothing can justify his actions.