In March 2016, D’Angelo Russell walked into the Los Angeles Lakers’ team breakfast and found himself sitting alone. The rookie had become the center of a locker-room controversy after a private recording involving his teammate Nick Young surfaced online. According to an ESPN report citing a source familiar with the situation, no Lakers teammate would sit with Russell at his breakfast table. Later, when Russell sat beside Lou Williams in the locker room, Williams got up and walked away.

Ten years later, the recording is still a sore subject for Young. What began as a private conversation became one of the most talked-about controversies of the Lakers’ 2015-16 season, putting Russell’s relationships with his teammates under strain and bringing Young’s relationship with rapper Iggy Azalea into the spotlight. Now, Young has revisited the incident and revealed just how much resentment he still carries.

“It was tough for him,” Young explained on a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. “He was at the lunch table, I mean, at breakfast times, by himself. It was hard… You don’t wanna be that guy that is known hanging with a snitch, basically. I call him a snitch to this day. So we can’t let that out. I’m glad we talking about the snitch right now.”

Young’s latest comments bring the focus back to a question that has followed the two former teammates for a decade: how did one recording cause such a deep breakdown of trust inside the Lakers locker room? To understand why the feud has lasted this long, it helps to revisit what happened before the video went public.

The Recording That Changed Everything

Russell was the Lakers’ second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, while Young was an established veteran. The two had developed a friendship and were known to spend time together. During the 2015-16 season, Russell recorded a private conversation in which Young discussed his romantic life while engaged to Azalea.

In the clip, Russell asked Young about a 19-year-old woman Young said he had met at a nightclub. “You was 30 and she was 19?” Russell asked. Young replied, “Yeah.” Russell then asked, “What about Amber Rose?” Young answered, “Nah, she knows my girl.”

Near the end of the recording, Russell said, “I’m glad you told my video all that.” Young turned toward the camera and asked, “Huh?” before the footage cut off.

The video surfaced online through celebrity gossip outlet Fameolous in late March 2016. Russell acknowledged recording the conversation but denied leaking it. The identity of the person who made the footage public was never conclusively established in the available reporting.

That distinction matters because the controversy quickly became about more than what Young had said. His teammate had recorded the conversation, but Russell maintained that he had not released the video. With the clip circulating publicly, the damage inside the Lakers locker room was already becoming clear.

Russell’s Apology Could Not Quickly Repair the Damage

The reaction from Russell’s teammates was immediate. ESPN reported that the recording had created a serious breakdown of trust within the team. One source described the situation bluntly: “It’s bad. It’s about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there’s no trust.”

On March 30, 2016, both players addressed the media separately. Young wanted the disagreement handled privately.

“I think it’s best that me and D’Angelo handle the situation we have in a private manner outside the media,” Young said. “I think it’s something we really do need to sit down and talk about. That’s about it. What happened is what happened. We’ve got to work on it.”

Russell, meanwhile, acknowledged that he had damaged the trust of his teammates and needed to work to earn it back.

“I feel as sick as possible. Been asked 110 times, and my answer and feeling stay same. I wish I could make things better right away, but I can’t,” Russell said. “I know if I’ve lost anybody’s trust, I’m going to work my tail off to gain it back, because that’s something you need for a winning team.”

Russell’s words showed that he understood the seriousness of the situation. But an apology could not instantly restore his standing in the locker room. The controversy also placed Young’s engagement under public scrutiny, although the timeline of that relationship’s end was more complicated than the headlines suggested.

Iggy Azalea’s Breakup Had Another Turning Point

Young and Azalea announced their engagement in 2015. When the recording surfaced in March 2016, Azalea took a sarcastic swipe at Russell on social media. “hmmm i see D Angelo Russell is trending… I actually liked his film. Thanks bro,” she tweeted. However, the couple did not end their engagement immediately after the video appeared.

In June 2016, Azalea announced that the relationship was over and explained what had led to her decision.

“I broke up with Nick because I found out he had brought other women into our home while I was away and caught them on the security footage,” Azalea said.

Her statement is an important part of the timeline. The leaked recording brought Young’s private life into public view, but Azalea identified home security footage as the reason she ended the engagement. It would be misleading to claim that Russell’s recording alone caused the breakup.

Young later recalled the moment he realized the relationship was beyond repair. “I knew it was bad when I saw my belongings in the swimming pool,” he said on Club Shay Shay.

The end of the engagement was one part of the fallout. Young’s anger toward Russell, however, had not disappeared. In his latest account, he also described trying to confront his teammate and the intervention that kept him away from the arena.

Young Says the Lakers Had to Keep Him Away From Russell

Young said he tried to get to the arena after the recording became public, but security stopped him at the entrance.

“I tried to get to the arena, they had security and everything. They stopped me at the door, told me I couldn’t come in, ‘take a couple of days off.’… I had the whole gang with me. It was about to go crazy,” Young said.

Then-Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak also intervened, according to Young. The former guard recalled being warned not to return to the arena or practice facility.

“Mitch Kupchak and them told me, ‘Don’t come to the arena. Don’t come to practice. None of that. If you do anything, we gonna take your money and all that,’” Young said.

Young’s account suggests the Lakers were trying to prevent the disagreement from escalating while the two players were still teammates. The specific warning about his money comes from Young’s recollection, rather than an independently confirmed statement from Kupchak.

But Young said being kept away from Russell did not end his desire to get back at him. His account of what happened next is the most serious allegation to emerge from the recent interview.

The Family-Lounge Allegation Adds Another Layer

Young appeared to suggest that he sent friends to confront Russell’s brother in the Lakers’ family lounge while the team was playing. His account of the encounter remains unverified, and he did not clearly explain what happened.

“But I still had to get him. So while we was playing, a couple friends of mine had to get his brother in the family lounge and all that,” Young said. “I had to get some type of get-back. I had to get some type of retribution… I gotta feel like I did something.”

Young did not identify the friends involved, give the exact date, or clearly explain what happened during the encounter. The available research also contains no independent confirmation establishing the nature of the incident.

The claim must therefore remain attributed to Young. It cannot be presented as established fact that Russell’s brother was physically attacked. Even with that qualification, the account offers a striking look at how far Young says his anger went.

Kobe Bryant also reportedly tried to persuade Young to be more forgiving. Young recalled Bryant telling him, “Come on he young you don’t know what he doing.” Young’s response was blunt: “That’s all fine and dandy.”

Young also recalled Russell apologizing privately and offering an explanation for how the recording became public.

“He said, ‘Man, I’m sorry. It wasn’t even me, it was my girl that did it.’ She said she got mad at him or something. I don’t know. Doesn’t make sense,” Young said.

That was Young’s recollection of their private conversation. Russell had publicly denied leaking the recording, and the available evidence does not establish who ultimately released it.

Ten Years Later, the Feud Keeps Coming Back

By August 2016, Young suggested that the two were making progress. “We’ll be able to work it out,” he told the New York Daily News. “We’ve already been working it out. It is what it is. I can’t be mad forever.”

Russell’s first stint in Los Angeles ended in June 2017, when the Lakers traded him and Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and the draft rights to Kyle Kuzma. Explaining the decision, then-president of basketball operations Magic Johnson said the team needed a different kind of leader.

“D’Angelo is an excellent player,” Johnson said. “He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader. I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with.”

The apparent truce did not last. In September 2022, Young named Russell when asked about a potential celebrity boxing match. Russell responded on social media, again maintaining that he was not responsible for leaking the original video.

Earlier in 2024, Young had criticized Russell during an interview with VladTV, saying, “They put their faith in the snitch, and the snitch let you down.”

The feud resurfaced in December 2024, when Russell was traded away from the Lakers during his second stint with the franchise. Young posted, “AND STAY OUT… Dnt bring yo a$$ back to LA.”

Johnson’s comments do not establish that the recording caused Russell’s trade. They do, however, provide context for the questions about leadership that surrounded Russell’s time in Los Angeles.

A decade later, the identity of the person who leaked the recording remains unresolved. Young, however, has not softened his stance on Russell.

He still calls him a snitch.