Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell apologizes for video fiasco
31 March 2016 Entertainment News
Fitzgerald Cecilio – 4E Sports Reporter
Los Angeles, CA, United States (4E Sports) – Los Angeles Lakers rookie D'Angelo Russell has apologized for causing a rift in the team that stemmed from a video he took of teammate Nick Young during their private conversation that was posted on social media.
"I feel as sick as possible," Russell said in a news conference before the team's 102-100 overtime win against the Heat. "Been asked 110 times, and my answer and feeling stay same."
Russell was booed by the home crowd when he was announced in Wednesday's starting lineup, a reaction he said after the game that he expected.
"I can't really show my face anywhere without people hating me right now," Russell said after the game. "I don't know. I try to handle it the right way and remember why I'm here, which is to play basketball."
The video, which was posted on the Twitter account of a celebrity gossip site, shows Russell filming Young while asking questions about Young being with other women than his current partner, Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.
After the video was posted, the relationship between Young and Azalea has turned sour and is now on the rocks, which Russell blames on himself.
"Honestly, I do," Russell said. "I've always been known as a guy that plays around a lot, and he has been, too. To be around somebody that's similar, with the same similar characteristics, is different.”
“He's one of the guys that I've always talked to about anything, and I cherished our friendship. For me to have an incident like this come up and put it in jeopardy is not what I was intending to do,” he added.
Russell said he has apologized to Young for the incident.
"I reached out to [Young], let him know my apologies," Russell said. "I don't know if they were accepted. I wouldn't blame him [if he didn't]."
In an earlier interview, Young said he and Russell will “handle the situation we have in a private manner outside the media".
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