Apparently, in the eyes of some Los Angeles Lakers employees, the Nick Young-D’Angelo Russell saga has gone about as well as it could.
According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, there was a fear within the Lakers’ organization that Young and Russell could end up in a physical confrontation, with coach Byron Scott openly saying that once upon a time it likely would have.
Lakers employees were characterized by Bresnahan as “privately relieved” that Young hadn’t gone after Russell at any point before or after Russell’s apology.
“All I can say is in our era, it probably would have been handled differently,” Scott told the media, via The Times. “And I’ll leave it at that.”
For his part, Russell said he would have fought back if things got physical.
“I’d get physical back,” Russell said. “It’s a point where you try to solve it the right way and I don’t know the words, but [if] there’s a sign of disrespect or violence is involved, sometimes you’ve got to let people feel you, you’ve got to let people know that, ‘If you disrespect this guy, you know you’ve got to bring it.'”
According to Scott, Young understandably hasn’t been himself since his cheating admission went public.
“He’s been a little bit more, I wouldn’t say standoffish, but he’s been probably a whole lot quieter than Nick normally is,” Scott said.
Bresnahan also noted that it was likely that the Lakers would try to trade Young during the offseason, though that was likely the case even before this scandal came about.
The Lakers reportedly won’t trade Russell after his leaked video exposed Young for cheating on Iggy Azalea (watch the video here).
While Russell has apologized to Young for his role in the situation, Young clearly isn’t over it yet.
