Getty Former Laker Nick Young (left) during this summer's Big Three tournament.
As sporting feuds go, especially in a place like Los Angeles, it still ranks as one of the silliest. But it is, apparently, still an NBA beef that lingers between two well-known former Lakers, point guard D’Angelo Russell and wing Nick Young.
The tiff goes back to a secretly recorded video posted by Russell online back in 2016 showing Young copping to cheating on his then-fiancee, singer Iggy Azalea. The engagement ended shortly thereafter, and Young has not forgotten. Apparently, he has not forgiven, either.
In a video with Sports Illustrated boxing writer Chris Mannix, Young was asked which NBA player he would like to get into a boxing ring for a bout. Young did not hesitate.
If @NickSwagyPYoung could box one NBA player…
@SIChrisMannix knew right away 😂
“Of course. D-Lo, D’Angelo,” Young said.
“That was the easy one, I think everyone was waiting for that one,” Mannix noted.
Young went on to say, “Some guys on the Warriors, some guys on the Lakers. Couple coaches.”
But Mannix noted that a possible Russell showdown was the way Young should go. “I’ll tell you what, and I think most people would agree, you could make a lot of money fighting D’Angelo Russell,” Mannix said. “I think there would be interest in Los Angeles in that.”
Young, laughing, said, “For sure.”
Young-Russell Beef Led to Russell Trade
Young has been all but out of the NBA since the following year, 2017-18, when he played for the Warriors and won a championship ring. He played 80 games that year but had only a bit part in the postseason, averaging 2.6 points and 10.3 minutes. He came back to play four games for the Nuggets in December 2018, but was waived by the end of that month and has not appeared in an game since.
Young is a career 37.6% 3-point shooter who averaged 11.4 points over 12 seasons, but does remain best-known for the incident involving Russell, who was a rookie and the No. 2 pick in the NBA that year. Russell and the Lakers always maintained that the incident was an accident, that Russell was not trying to set up Young. But most felt that Russell had broken a locker-room code by outing a teammate in a team hotel room, in a video recorded without his knowledge.
The incident drove a wedge between Young and Russell, and reports suggested that Russell was isolated from the team after that. A year later, Russell was traded to the Nets in a draft-day deal.
As former NBA veteran Stephen Jackson said on ESPN, players sided with Young because, ‘Snitches get stitches. Old rule. Snitches get stitches.”
Russell Was Not Amused
Russell, for his part, met the news of Young’s boxing wish with rolled eyes. He tweeted shortly after Young’s video hit Twitter, “My name keep dude relevant, and I’m going to grave with “I ain’t do that shit.’”
My name keep dude relevant, and I’m going to grave with “I ain’t do that shit”
#CarryOn
Russell has bounced, since leaving the Lakers, from the Nets to the Warriors and finally to the Timberwolves, where he has been for the past two-and-a-half seasons. Russell, and All-Star in 2018-19, has averaged 17.7 points and 5.6 assists in his NBA career.
Young, for his part, also cropped up in the news this week when former Laker J.R. Smith said he was among a group of players who he felt had been “blackballed” from the NBA.
“I feel like there is a whole genre that happened to,” Smith said in an interview with Complex. “Joe Johnson, obviously, still got game, can still play. Jamal Crawford, still got game, still can play. Nick Young, still got game, still could play. Isaiah Thomas, still got game, still can play.”