The Tribune

By Ricardo Wells

THE NBA has been a buzz this past week with the defending world champions, the Golden State Warriors, pulling even closer to the 96’ Bulls’ 72-win campaign; Lebron detailing a wish to play alongside some of his generation’s best players, a kid making a mad dash to hug Carmelo, Kyrie Irving’s supposed “ex-girlfriend” and last but certainly not least – the “LA LA” in Lakerland.

From the onset, let’s be clear the “4th Quarter Press” has no intention of being a pop-culture column or providing you with the latest from the internet blogosphere.

Truth be told, my extreme sport fandom has always kept me up-to-date with the stories behind the scenes of the sports I love. In fact, while I often question the need to know what a celebrity/athlete had for dinner the night before, I have always been interested in how actions away from the field of play corresponds to the performers’ actual in-game performance.

With that now noted, we can dive into the circumstances surrounding this apparent “slip of the tongue” by the Lakers’ rookie standout Deangelo Russell in recent weeks.

According to league sources, a purported recording of Lakers veteran guard Nick Young discussing some of his latest “sexcapades” away from longtime girlfriend, rapper Iggy Azalea – yes somehow this will relate to basketball shortly.

Those sources have also indicated that the person behind the purported taping is none other than Deangelo Russell.

To make matters worse, the video has now been made public and has led many of Russell’s teammates to ostracise the rookie in the locker room and on the bench.

Here is the basketball kicker, those very sources have now reported that the tension has become so grave that it was the sole reason for the team’s 48-point loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday - a margin which tied a franchise record.

Deangelo’s stat-line in that game - 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 turnovers in 29 minutes of play.

While I haven’t had a chance to view the video, transcripts have shown that Young lays out his adventures in a manner that comes across as boastful and inconsiderate to his fiancé.

While I am not saying his words in the video or his supposed infidelity are things to scoff at and chalk up as “boys being boys”, there is a code, a principle that all locker rooms live by.

What happens within those confines or the communal areas that transcend the physical scope of a locker room should always remain there.

I applaud Nick Young, 30, for attempting to school the 19-year-old Russell on the pitfalls that may devour him if he doesn’t perfect the concept of keeping his personal life in a particular order; the rookie should have understood that the conversation - a private one - should have remained as the old folks say “from one’s lips to another’s ears” and nothing beyond.

However, the childish mistake of recording the purported video and subsequently allowing the video to make its way to social media shows just how much the off-the-court nonsense could affect an in-game performance and team chemistry.

If you recall, it was a similar situation that plagued the Kobe Bryant for most of his career after his all to public fallout with former teammate Shaquille O’Neal.

During the buildup to Kobe’s infamous 2005 rape trial, in the shadows of the Lakers’ 2000-2002 three-peat, Kobe allowed many of the team’s locker room secrets to get out into the public domain.

As history tells it, to clear his burden, Kobe Bryant offered up tidbits of what current and former teammates often did on NBA road trips; attempting to prove that his actions where just the norm.

Those stories rendered by Kobe shed light on Shaq and drove a bigger rift between the two already feuding teammates.

In his 2011 book, “Shaq Uncut: My Story” the all-time great centre lambasted Kobe’s actions, penning it as a naïve kid doing stupid things.

• Here is an excerpt from the book:

:So I’m on edge because I don’t have I don’t have a new deal, and Kobe is on edge because he might be going to jail, so we’re taking it out on each other. Just before the start of the ’03-’04 season the coach staff called us in and said, “No more public sparring or you’ll get fined.” … Phil was tired of it. Karl Malone and Gary Payton were sick of it. … So what happens? Immediately after that Kobe runs right out to Jim Gray and does this interview where he lets me have it. He said I was fat and out of shape. He said I was milking my toe injury for more time off, and the injury wasn’t even that serious. (Yeah, right. It only ended my damn career.) He said I was “lobbying for a contract extension when we have two Hall of Famers playing pretty much for free.” I’m sitting there watching this interview and I’m gonna explode. Hours earlier we had just promised our coach we’d stop. It was a truce broken. I let the guys know, “I’m going to kill him.”

Despite efforts to keep the tensions under wraps, the Lakers got trounced in the NBA finals the following June by the Pistons. At that point things had unravelled to the point where the Lakers organisation had to make a decision on which star to keep.

Malone retired, Payton left as a free agent and Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat in the offseason.

Kobe – well he was left with his rape case and three miserable years in Los Angeles on, at best, dreary teams.

The Lakers went from a star-studded roster to the bottom of the league.

Shifting the focus back to this year’s Lakers who are already at the bottom of the barrel one has to ask, can this incarnation of the Lakers recover from this?

Honestly, in my opinion, they don’t have to.

Chances are that Nick Young is on his way out of Laker-town this offseason as the team continues to overhaul its core in the wake of Kobe’s retirement.

On the other end, Russell might have more of an up-hill climb to recover from this ordeal.

Players around the league are now looking at him and asking themselves if this is a guy they truly want to go to battle with.

In a league built on the urban culture where loyalty means everything, one has to wonder – has Deangelo Russell truly studied at the feet of Kobe?