Teenagers have always done dumb things. And now that just about all of them are outfitted with cell phones featuring cameras, we’re reminded of as much just about daily.
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And, because teenagers are capable of being good NBA players, they will (rightfully) earn employment in this league. As a result, the league and its older players will have to sit through the same sort of growing pains that come from having to mind a kid that is about to turn 19 into 20. A report from ESPN early on Wednesday reminded us of that.
Allegedly, newly-turned-20 Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell reportedly filmed a conversation with teammate Nick Young, who is famously engaged to rapper Iggy Azalea, without Young’s knowledge. The clip somehow found its way online recently, and as a result Russell has become a bit of a pariah inside the Lakers' locker room.
From Marc Stein and Baxter Holmes:
"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."
In the video, Russell asks Young at one point, "You was 30 and she was 19?" referencing Young's age and the age of another woman that Young said that he met in a nightclub.
"What about Amber Rose?" Russell later says, mentioning another celebrity.
"No, she knows my girl," Young is recorded as saying.
Later in the conversation, while apparently still recording, Russell is heard telling Young, "I'm glad you told my video all that."
"Huh?" Young says, turning his face toward Russell before the video cuts off.
All of this comes toward the end of the Lakers’ literal and figurative Worst Season Ever, the most recent example of such coming in the team’s embarrassing 48-point blowout loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday. A breach of Bro Trust doesn’t excuse the squad’s insistence on playing “wow, really … and you get paid for this?”-defense in Salt Lake City (Young sat out the game due to a stomach ailment), but our reaction to that malaise was truly telling.
It’s true that the one-sided scoreboard in Utah on Monday could have been expected – the Lakers are the worst team in the West, while the Jazz are a current playoff team just starting to turn into gear.
Outside of the lopsided score, though, nothing seemed all that shocking: Los Angeles does not care about defense, and in handing the reins over to a skinflint front office, coach Byron Scott, while making Kobe Bryant the NBA’s highest-paid player (to say nothing of employing Nick Young’s shot selection), little seemed awry. The saddest part is that the record-setting loss seemed so normal.
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