D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young, and Things We Don’t Want to Consider

I cringed when I heard about D’Angelo Russell secretly recording Nick Young talking about cheating on his fiancée. But I didn’t cringe because this incident is ugly and sad and extremely personal. Though it is all of those things.

I cringed because what this incident revealed is something that we, as sports fans, don’t want to be reminded of. Namely, that these athletes we treat like objects on our TV’s are actual living, breathing, human beings. Human beings who are equipped with feelings and defects and insecurities and vulnerabilities, just like the rest of us.

The reason why we don’t want to consider these things is somewhat complicated, but it can probably be boiled down to the fact that truly considering these things makes it very difficult to enjoy an NBA game. Because if we‘re not viewing these men as pieces on a chessboard or statistics or assets our favorite team controls, it changes how we consume the sports we love. And if we’re considering these things while we’re watching a game, it can be a far more complicated and far less enjoyable experience.

Even though we were exposed to a side of professional athletes that many of us would rather not consider, we’ve been captivated by the drama unfolding between Russell and Young because it involves so many fascinating layers that have little or nothing to do with the actual game of basketball.

Bro code, locker room culture, infidelity, celebrity, and privacy are all at play in the Russell-Young saga.

Partially because there’s so much to consider in this increasingly messy situation, it has occupied our collective consciousness more than an incident involving two members of a team with a record of 16–60 probably ever should.

But if we’re able to look past the headlines and clickbait associated with this story, there’s a lot at stake for both D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young.

At just 20-years old, Russell has become a pariah because of his actions. His standing with his current teammates and more broadly, with players and fans around the league, is tenuous at best right now. It’s tough to say how Russell’s newfound reputation will affect his career in the NBA going forward, but this incident will surely be something he is forced to contend with for many years to come.

On the other hand, Nick Young’s relationship with his fiancé, Iggy Azalea, would appear to be in jeopardy. And from a basketball perspective, his status as a member of the Lakers appears to be in jeopardy as well.

Seeing as Russell was the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and Young is a 30-year old journeyman who is averaging 7.3 ppg off the bench this season, it wouldn’t be surprising if Young was traded during the offseason to quell whatever awkwardness and bad blood is present within the Lakers locker room in the aftermath of this incident.

Regardless of how things play out, it would appear that both Young and Russell’s professional careers and private lives will be impacted in a fairly significant and negative manner.

But this is not an attempt to engender sympathy for million dollar athletes whose actions were irresponsible and hurt other people. Nor is this any great tragedy in the grand scheme of the world.

At the end of the day, both Russell and Young are still fabulously wealthy, wildly successful, and they will enjoy luxuries that most of us can only dream about. But their wealth and status don’t mean that what they’re going through right now isn’t real and valid and personal and difficult. And the fact that this entire incident is being played out in a public setting only magnifies the difficulty of the situation.

Of course, both Russell and Young are public figures who made mistakes. Russell for secretly recording something that is far from benign and then having that material leak to the public. Young for sleeping with women who are not his fiancée. Both men willingly made those choices with at least some knowledge that what they were doing wasn’t right.

Even so, perhaps there should be more sympathy for what both men are experiencing right now. Because when you’re a professional athlete or celebrity, there are few boundaries about how the public treats these kinds of incidents. And in turn, the vulnerability that stems from this unfortunate fact of life must be an incredibly difficult thing to face on top of everything else that Young and Russell are currently dealing with.

Russell, Young, and most professional athletes appear invincible on our TV’s. And although it would seem that all their wealth and fame and talent make them invincible, they are immeasurably vulnerable precisely because of their wealth and fame and talent. Ultimately, these men are vulnerable in a way that the vast majority of us can’t totally understand.

But sympathy for these athletes is a difficult thing to ask of regular people working regular jobs just so they can afford to be alive.

And in any case, this is not about sympathy.

As best I can tell, it’s about being on the outside looking in at a reality that few of us will ever experience. A public vulnerability that is often mocked and turned into meme’s and trivialized on the internet for clicks and page views because we demand entertainment and distraction. Because having your dirty laundry aired out with the entire world watching is “part of the deal” that these athletes and celebrities signed up for.

And maybe that’s the way it should be. Or, at the very least, it’s a small price for people like Russell and Young to pay so the rest of us can be entertained. After all, we need something to talk about, don’t we?

But those of us living our normal, non-professional athlete, non-celebrity lives will never quite know what this past week was like for D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young. I suspect that we wouldn’t want to, either.