Nick Young's Still Angry With D'Angelo Russell For Snitching & Blames Him For Lakers Playoff Failure

Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty

Old grudges die hard, at least for Nick Young.

After a tumultuous NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers battled it out with the New Orleans Pelicans to eventually clinch the 7th seed in the Western Conference.

While momentous, it meant they needed to beat out the second-seeded Denver Nuggets, but they couldn’t and were handed a gentlemen’s sweep of 3-1.

And now, former Laker Nick Young is blaming D’Angelo Russell.

On a recent sit down with VladTV, the retired NBA player broke down his reasoning as too much responsibility being placed on him, particularly in the Lakers’ first home game in the series.

“They depended on D-Lo, and that’s just – you’re asking to lose. You’re asking to lose right there, placing your faith in that. Game 3 was tough for him, and I know I like to pick fun at him, but you just seen the writing on the wall,” Young said. I feel like that was a big game, and he could’ve changed the mindsets of what people think about him during that game, and he let the moment be bigger than him. I don’t even think he scored a point that game.”

But after going through purely basketball reasoning, Swaggy P turns to his real issue with D-Lo, pointedly concluding his remarks by saying, “What do you expect? They put their faith in the snitch, and the snitch let you down.”

Young’s referring to when the two were Lakers teammates during the 2015-16 season, and Russell recorded a Snapchat video of Young admitting he cheated on his then-girlfriend rapper Iggy Azalea.

Russell was then labeled a snitch. Due to deteriorating team chemistry and trust, Magic Johnson later revealed on First Take that his lack of leadership led to Russell’s being shipped off to the Brooklyn Nets. Then, after a stint in Golden State and a few seasons with the Timberwolves, he came back to the Lakers in 2023.

Below, see how social media is reacting to Nick Young’s still holding a grudge over D-Lo’s snitching incident from 2016.

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