With D'Angelo Russell, the concern has always been about maturity more than basketball ability. Byron Scott couldn’t ignore the talent but was reluctant to let him loose, bumping heads with his promising rookie with a tough-love approach that was intended to make Russell earn what he wanted most – the ball in his hands and the trust that he could run the team as he saw fit.

View photos D'Angelo Russell (left) and Nick Young during better times. (NBAE/Getty Images) More

Even before Scott relented, Russell sought the approval of his teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, putting their opinion of him ahead of Scott's or anyone else's on the coaching staff. Russell was finally beginning to earn their respect, as evidenced by the mob of revelers hopping on his shoulders in a March 1 win against Brooklyn in which they learned he has ice in his veins. After a recent string of 20-point games, Russell was asked about the most difficult challenge he faced as a young point guard in earning the trust of veterans.

"You've got to show it,” Russell told The Vertical. “You've got to show it. When I show it every once in a while, people see it and then once I get the opportunity to show it all the time towards the end of the year, you really get to see it, so it's cool."

But any progress Russell gained on the court has been shattered by a violation of trust off the court from which he won't easily recover. In what seems to be a prank run afoul, Russell recorded Nick Young discussing cheating on his fiancée, pop star Iggy Azalea, and Russell reportedly has been shunned by his teammates after a gossip website got the video and released it last week. In the aftermath, a fractured Lakers team lost by 48 points in Utah on Monday, matching the worst defeat in franchise history.

Professional athletes are trained to be guarded and to view the locker room – and its expansive outposts for connectivity among teammates (homes, hotel rooms, charter planes, practice courts, etc.) – as a sanctuary in which they're allowed to freely express themselves without fear of being shamed or violated publicly, especially by one of their own. This can't be easily brushed aside as a rookie mistake because Russell, who turned 20 last month, was a teammate long before he became a professional basketball player.

Hitting record on his phone has now put three people in extremely uncomfortable positions. Young played with Gilbert Arenas as a rookie, so he has experienced pranks before – Arenas once took the wheels off Young's car and placed the vehicle on cinder blocks. But the situation with Russell could now also affect the woman he plans to marry. Young certainly made errors of his own – being unfaithful to Azalea (who thanked Russell for the video on Twitter) and talking about it. Even if unintentional, Russell exposing Young as if he worked for TMZ, however, has made him more of a pariah among his peers.

View photos Russell surveys the court during the Lakers' 48-point loss to Utah on Monday. (NBAE/Getty Images) More

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