Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell is contrite over leaked video he shot of Nick Young
Lakers Nick Young and D’Angelo Russell speak with the media before tipoff against Miami.
Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell said he was sickened by consequences of the leaked video he shot of teammate Nick Young talking about women who were not his fiancee.
“I feel as sick as possible,” Russell said Wednesday in a packed interview room at Staples Center. “I wish I could make things better right away, but I can’t.”
Russell said he did not know how the video, which was shot a couple of months ago, appeared within the last few days on a celebrity gossip Twitter feed.
“Honestly, no. This just got in the wrong hands,” he said. “It wasn’t a prank, it wasn’t something for everybody else to see, it was for my eyes, his eyes only.”
Young, engaged to rapper Iggy Azalea, spoke briefly to reporters a few minutes before Russell.
“What happened is what happened. We’ve got to work on it,” Young said. He did not take questions from reporters.
Russell fielded questions for about five minutes and said he apologized to Young.
“If I’ve lost anybody’s trust, I’m going to work my tail off to gain it back because that’s something you need for a winning team,” Russell said. “You need everybody to trust each other. You need the first guy to trust the 15th guy.”
Some Lakers fans booed Russell during Wednesday’s pregame introductions and again while he attempted a first-quarter free throw. But they also cheered loudly in overtime when he hit a three-pointer and scored on a driving layup in the Lakers’ 102-100 victory over the Miami Heat. Russell finished with 16 points.
Lakers Coach Byron Scott talks to the media before tipoff against Miami.
When Russell was out of the game, several players sat between him and Young on the bench.
After Russell made a three-pointer in the second quarter, veteran Roy Hibbert congratulated him near midcourt.
In the dimly lighted video, Young appeared to acknowledge meeting another woman at a club.
“You was 30 and she was 19?” Russell asked in the video, an apparent reference to the age difference between Young and the woman. It appeared that Young did not know he was being filmed.
Russell, 20, seemed remorseful Wednesday.
“There’s really no explanation for that topic of discussion,” he said before referring to a typically jovial relationship with Young. “We play around and we joke and we laugh and we say things that you don’t really repeat. That was just an incident of just ‘playing too much goes wrong.’ I take the full blame for that, recording the video. But leaking the video wasn’t me.”
The Lakers (16-59) haven’t had good on-court chemistry while stumbling quickly toward the worst season of their 68-year existence.
Coach Byron Scott said he was “absolutely” concerned about trust issues in the locker room as the latest controversy enveloped the team.
“We’ll see if it festers during the game, but you’ve got to have some concern,” he said. “We’ll see what type of character we have in this locker room when it’s all said and done.”
Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft, had an unremarkable season until an eight-game burst starting at the end of February. He averaged 23.3 points over that span but faded the last two weeks and scored only five points on two-for-11 shooting Monday against Utah.
He said he didn’t feel shunned or isolated by teammates.
“There’s been a bad vibe but we’re human. Everybody has two cents to say,” he said. “We’ve just got to clear the air.”
Tensions seemed high earlier in the day after the Lakers completed their morning shoot-around.
Russell declined to take reporters’ questions at the time, saying there was “nothing to talk about” as he walked off the practice court without stopping.
A few minutes earlier, Scott grew tired after taking a handful of questions about Russell and threatened to end the interview unless queries were basketball-related.
“If you want to ask me about the Miami game that we’re playing tonight, let’s talk about Miami and basketball,” he said, his voice rising sharply. “If not, then this interview is basically over with.”
Scott said he hadn’t talked to Russell about the incident and didn’t plan on it, either.
Internal discord didn’t play a part in the Lakers’ tying a team record with a 48-point loss to Utah, Scott said.
“We played very badly. That’s what I think that game was all about,” he said.
After the shoot-around, three security guards walked Russell to his car in the private parking lot at the team training facility, an apparent attempt to keep reporters from him.
Young, for his part, suited up against Miami after not attending Monday’s game because of intestinal flu-like symptoms, the team said.
Young did not play in the eight games before that because he was dropped from the Lakers’ rotation for ineffective play.
“I don’t see that changing,” Scott said Wednesday.
Young is shooting an inefficient 33.9% this season and has two more years on his contract for a total of $11 million. He and teammate Jordan Clarkson made headlines last week when they were accused of harassing a woman and her 68-year-old mother while driving in Hollywood.
An internal Lakers investigation was inconclusive, saying there were “different interpretations of what happened.”
Twitter: @Mike_Bresnahan
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