By Kyle Edelman The LA Lakers are 15-59 and the worst team in the Western Conference. Their lone highlights this year include tracking Kobe Bryant’s final games and watching their young, future stars blossom into decent players. One of those stars is D’Angelo Russell, the 2nd overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. The Lakers had not picked top 3 in the NBA Draft since the 1980’s, so their pick last year was essential to an eventual rebuild of the once glorious franchise. Though Russell’s play has been impressive at times, the young point guard might have a new issues with his new team. In Kanye West’s song “Real Friends,” he writes, “It's not many of us, we smile at each other But how many honest? Trust issues.” Though the LA Lakers and Kanye West would never be related in any other circumstance- unless there was a Kardashian involved, this lyric describes the current drama within the team. On March 28th 2016, a snapchat video surfaced of Nick Young, a shooting guard for the Lakers, answering questions about sleeping with “a couple of women.” Who was asking the questions? You guessed it, 20 year old D'Angelo Russell. Now, Nick Young has a colorful personality and is known for being not the smartest athlete, so a video describing his personal life may not seem like much. The big conflict created from this video is that Young is in a very public relationship with Australian singer and rapper, Iggy Azalea. Azalea jokingly had this to say about the video that many were outraged about: Outrage surfaced, but not in the way you would think. Instead of attacking Nick Young, an open cheater to his fiancee, the media and fans attacked D’Angelo Russell for taking a video of Young. Russell told ESPN.com that he “thought nobody would see it.” The Lakers are already a mess with their overall performance and unsteady mix of young players and seasoned veterans. A corruption like this could ultimately cause the demise of this storyed franchise. Many media analysts and fans believe Russell should be traded or released. Why you may ask? ESPN also reported that Laker teammates have “isolated the superstar, making him sit alone in the locker room and eat lunch by himself.” Very mature. Do the rest of the Lakers have reason to be mad? To an extent, an NBA locker room is like a family of trust and acceptance, two things Russell disregarded. In regards to the idea of moving the superstar, I think that would be more of a deterrent to the overall future of the team rather than a positive. Yeah, he lost a lot of people’s trust, but he is still a future all-star with a lot of potential. The Lakers need any talent they can get, so trading their top prospect would be a contradiction to the ongoing team rebuild. Overall, I believe this situation has been blown out of proportion. It was not Russell’s intention to ruin Young’s relationship; the two were close friends before this scandal. Time will tell if the Young/Russell will affect the overall team chemistry of Lakers and if it will be the downfall to a rather successful franchise.
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Dylan EdelmanWilson Senior Archives
February 2020
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