D’Angelo Russell spoke to Yahoo and here is his explanation of what happened. You make the call if you feel that his apologies are sincere or he is just sorry he got caught.
“I am sick,” Russell told The Vertical by phone on his drive to the Staples Center on Wednesday. “I am sorry about recording the video. I can’t repeat myself enough on that: I am sorry I recorded that video. I feel horrible. I wish this never happened.”
They asked him how the video leaked and here is what he had to say.
“Honestly, I have no idea. Me and Nick, that’s our friendship: We play around a lot. Anyone who knows him and knows me, they know that about us. But I apologize for recording that video. I never intentionally wanted to hurt anyone. I never wanted what was said in there to get out. It was my fault that it did, but that was never intentional.
“The thing is, we record ourselves doing dumb stuff all the time,” Russell told The Vertical. “On the road or home, wherever. We go back and watch what we did and said and laugh at ourselves. I guess I just never thought that these pranks we pull on ourselves could have bigger consequences. That was a big lesson I learned.
“I’ve said to myself over and over: What could anyone possibly gain by intentionally doing something that could hurt someone else’s relationship? I never wanted to hurt anyone. I’m sorry for it.”
Russell says he asked for Swaggy’s forgiveness, but doesn’t know if Swaggy has gotten over it or will ever trust him again.
He makes a plea to everyone to forgive him.
“I love this city and love this franchise. … I take nothing for granted.
“I know this is going to be tough. I am a good person. I cherish the relationships I have and I would never intentionally hurt someone. I will work hard to earn back the trust of my teammates and those who were impacted by this.
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
He made a mistake, hopefully he has learned from it. We all make mistakes, he is dealing with the consequences and has to make sure something like this never happens again.
It will be a long time before anyone fully trusts him, but in the end winning and playing at high level can trump everything else.
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