Members of the Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly isolating themselves from rookie guard D’Angelo Russell after a tape was leaked of a conversation with fellow Laker Nick Young.
It has been a season to forget for the Los Angeles Lakers, who are coming off a 48 point loss Monday night to the Utah Jazz and are on pace to have the worst season in the history of the franchise. All this while they say goodbye to one of the most popular players in the history of the team, Kobe Bryant.
On the court, the team is also trying to get their young players to work together and turn things around. One of the key components is rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell, who for all his talent on the court has had his maturity questioned by the media and even his own head coach, Byron Scott.
Recently, a tape was released in which Russell secretly taped teammate Nick Young, asking the latter questions about his reported interactions with women at clubs in the L.A. area. After that tape’s release, things have gotten icy inside the Lakers’ locker room according to a report from ESPN:
"“…Some teammates’ trust in Russell is eroding after a video surfaced in the past week that shows Russell recording a private conversation between himself and teammate Nick Young. Young does not appear to realize he is being taped.“Right now,” one source said, “they’re handling it by isolating him.”“It’s bad…it’s about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there’s no trust.”"
One Lakers official reportedly said Russell was doing a “prank gone wrong”, adding to the argument about his maturity level at this point. Members of the team have refused to eat with Russell during breakfast and lunch meetings since the release of the video.
Over the past eight games, Russell has scored over 20 points just once with the Lakers going 1-7 over that span. For the year, Russell is averaging just over 13 points a game on 42 percent shooting from the field.
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