The feud between D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young is one of the relatively lesser known ones in the NBA. However, at the time it went down, in 2016, the fight split the Los Angeles Lakers locker room, and isolated sophomore guard Russell from his teammates. The beef began when Russell leaked a private conversation where Young was admitting he was unfaithful to his fiancé, Iggy Azalea. The veteran was livid, and infamously called Russell a “snitch”. Lou Williams’ recollection of the incident was the talk of the town last week.
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Young has now come out to set the record straight, claiming that the narrative presented by Williams was way off. Lou had recalled that Russell arranged a meeting and tried to apologize to the squad, but Kobe Bryant cut the conversation short by telling the team to concentrate on the game at hand.
As per Young, the conversation that Williams spoke of happened in his absence as he wasn’t even interested in speaking to Russell at all. He also added that since the situation had come to a head in March, Bryant wasn’t playing a lot of games. So it’s impossible he would have walked through the locker room telling the team to focus on their upcoming match.
“I’m tired of talking about this man. Come on, that’s cap! I wasn’t there to even talk to the m**********r! And Kobe wasn’t even playing! And Lou Will said too many different things! Too many different stories. He there with Byron Scott, I get it, probably scared to keep it real. I love Lou Will. Lou Will my dawg, but that ain’t what happened,” Young said on Gil’s Arena.
Young calling out Williams is surprising, though. The two are great friends who regularly get together to reminisce the old days, including many anecdotes about Bryant.
When Young and Williams reminisced about Bryant on Twitter
When the world learned of Bryant’s untimely demise in January 2020, everyone was shocked. Young and Williams, who shared a locker room with him during his last season in the league, immediately took to social media recalling many stories of Bryant — some serious, and some downright hilarious.
Young recalled how Bryant was the first person to check up on him when he had undergone a thumb surgery, and how nobody believed it because Bryant was notoriously closed up as a teammate.
I just seen you man and you was talking about the broke thumb story lol crazy ass didn’t believe me but I tell everybody you was the first person to check up on me before surgery and after. I told him imma tell the story of him throwing my shoes in the trash next and he laughed
— Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) January 27, 2020
His next update was heartbreaking, as he revealed his last conversation with the Lakers legend.
Williams replied to that, recalling a story of how the Lakers had suffered a blowout defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers. After the game, he claimed Bryant took away the entire team’s shoes. They were all wearing his signature line. He reportedly said the team was too soft to be wearing his shoes.
We got blew out in Portland. He took everybody Kobe’s and said they couldn’t wear it cause we was soft 😂😂
— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) January 28, 2020
The stories they narrated, each complimenting the other, described Kobe’s on-court persona perfectly. Their memories matched to a T even.
That makes us wonder how Young and Williams managed to have two contrasting memories of the Russell incident.
It has been eight years since D’Lo and Young had a bust-up, and there hasn’t been any commitment to resolving it from Young’s side. But if Williams is to be believed, Russell attempted to bury the hatchet. Young simply was not willing to hear him out.
