As if the Lakers dumpster fire needed some more gasoline thrown on it.
According to ESPN, the team is isolating rookie D’Angelo Russell following the release of a video, which he reportedly taped, that captures teammate Nick Young admitting to cheating on fiancée Iggy Azalea.
Russell is overheard in the video, which surfaced on social media last week, asking Young whether he has been with other women, including rumored Odell Beckham Jr. squeeze Amber Rose. In the damning chat, Young talks about a 19-year-old he met at a club last summer.
“You was 30 and she was 19?” Russell asks.
“What about Amber Rose, you never tried,” Russell quizzes.
“No, she knows my girl,” Young says of Azalea.
It appears Young did not know he was being filmed, seemingly shocked after Russell says in later footage, “I’m glad you told my video all that.”
“Huh?” Young said.
Azalea was quick to respond on social media, thanking Russell for the “intel” on Young.
“hmmm i see D Angelo Russell is trending… I actually liked his film. Thanks bro,” Azalea tweeted.
The Lakers said Russell and Young discussed the matter privately, but sources told the LA Daily News that it’s uncertain if their friendship will be salvaged.
“Nothing to talk about,” Russell said after the shootaround before being escorted to his car by security.
As the Lakers continue to spiral in Kobe Bryant’s final season, which included a catastrophic 123-75 loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday, team morale is at an epic low.
“It’s bad,” a team insider told ESPN.com. “It’s about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there’s no trust.”
During a recent team meal, Russell reportedly sat alone as no teammate would eat with him.
Though sources close to the situation dub the video “a prank gone wrong” and “a mistake by [Russell],” re-establishing relationships with teammates may prove troubling for the 20-year-old first-round draft pick.
“The only thing I’m disappointed about is it got out,” coach Byron Scott said Wednesday. “We’re a family and we try to keep everything in house. That’s the only thing I’m disappointed.”
Young and the Australian pop star got engaged last summer, but had postponed their wedding date.
“It was going to happen at the end of the year, but now I have to go to work so we’ll probably have to wait until the end of the next basketball season to do that,” Azalea told Ryan Seacrest on March 18. “So that kind of is a bit sucky, but it’s all right.”
Those wedding plans now appear to be in danger.
Russell was the No. 2 pick out of Ohio State in last year’s draft, and has shown moments of brilliance amid inconsistency. Scott has seemingly prioritized bowing to Bryant’s farewell tour over the development of Russell and fellow young stud Julius Randle.