You may think as a 6ft 7in, 210lb professional athlete you’d be safe from people moving in on your girlfriend. But, as it turns out, dolphins have little respect for size, reputation or loving relationships.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Nick Young told journalists on Tuesday how a dolphin had attempted to kill him before stealing his girlfriend, the rapper Iggy Azalea.

“He was playing with everybody else, doing what dolphins do – the ‘ack ack’ and all that,” Young said before the Lakers’ game agains the Denver Nuggets. “It was my time to ride the dolphin. For some reason, he took me all the way to the bottom. He was trying to drown me. But I saw it happening, so I jumped out of the water and took off the little life vest and threw off my little water shoes and stayed outside.”

Young was expanding on Azalea’s tweet in which she said the player has a fear of dolphins. As Young described his encounter with the dastardly cetacean, it’s easy to see why.

“He went straight down,” Young said. “He was trying to kill me. I think he was trying to get on Iggy. He was a little friendly, kissing her and stuff. He was trying to take my woman.”

IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) A dolphin in Cabo tried to kill him once. I was there and to be fair, it's true. Now he won't go on the wild dolphin snorkel tour. Lol.

Young’s pain didn’t end there. His coach, Byron Scott, interrupted the interview to tell the player he was late to the locker room and would be fined $1,500. Scott was asked what he thought of Young’s recent performances. “You’re asking me where Nick’s mind is?” Scott said. “First of all, I don’t want to get into where Nick’s mind is. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. I just want him to get back to playing basketball the way he’s capable of playing.”

The Lakers lost the game 106-96 to the Nuggets. No dolphins or any other sea mammals participated in the defeat.