Nick Young once said of his feud with former Lakers teammate D’Angelo Russell, “I can’t stay mad forever.”
Maybe that’s still true.
But Swaggy P’s grudge against DLo appears to be still going strong more than eight years after Russell secretly videotaped Young discussing women other than his then-fiancée Iggy Azalea. And somehow that video later became public.
On Sunday, Young had a decidedly strong reaction to Russell being traded from the Lakers to the Brooklyn Nets for the second time in seven years.
“And go outside,” Young wrote to X. “Don’t take me back to LA.”
Russell was selected by the Lakers with the second overall pick in the 2015 draft. As a rookie, he became friends with Young, a veteran player who is in his ninth season in the NBA and third season with the Lakers.
However, at some point that season, Russell recorded their conversation without Young’s knowledge. Months later, the video appeared on celebrity gossip social media feeds. Russell said at the time he had no idea how it happened.
“We fool around, we joke, we laugh, we say things that we wouldn’t normally repeat,” Russell told reporters on March 31, 2016. “That was just a case of ‘too much play is a problem.'” The responsibility lies with me, who recorded the video. But I’m not the one who leaked the video. ”
Lakers’ Nick Young and D’Angelo Russell speak to the media before tipoff against Miami.
That day, Young spoke briefly in front of Russell, took no questions, and told reporters that he and Russell would address the situation privately. In August of that year, Young told the Daily News that his relationship with Russell was on the mend.
“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Young said. “We’ve already solved it. That’s the reality. We can’t stay mad forever.”
Young addressed the issue in his current role as a regular on the “Gills Arena” podcast. Asked in November why he didn’t physically confront Russell at the time, Young said then-Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and team security prevented him from contacting Russell until the situation was calmed down. said he could not.
Both players left the Lakers during the 2017 offseason, Young as a free agent and Russell traded to the Nets. Young played two additional seasons with the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets. Russell became an All-Star in his second year with the Nets, then played for the Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves before returning to the Lakers in February 2023.
Russell helped the Lakers reach the Western Conference Finals that season, and the following year he set a team record for most threes in a season with 226. But after losing his starting role and seeing his playing time decline earlier this season, this weekend’s deal sent Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three future second-round picks to Brooklyn, along with Dorian Finney-Smith and a reserve. They ended up acquiring guard Shake Milton.
