The Ethical Quandary of D'Angelo Russell's Snitching

By Zack Boehm on March 31, 2016

We love sports because, at their best, they are perfectly meritocratic. There are clear winners and losers, and everybody abides by a set of operational rules that are intimately understood, mutually agreed upon, and, at least theoretically, impossible to circumvent. The self-contained world of sports offers us a kind of ethical clarity that is impossible to come by in a real world plagued by ambiguity and equivocation.

This is what sports can be in their ideal form.

But sports exist within a social nexus of celebrity and scrutiny. Our ardor for sports bleeds outside of the parameters of the playing field and into the personal lives of the athletes that we exalt. And in personal lives, where neat, “final score” resolutions are scarce, things can get messy.

Such was the case last weekend, when, in a prank gone catastrophically awry, a video surreptitiously recorded by Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell of his teammate Nick Young (who is engaged to Iggy Azalea) admitting to a series of infidelities was leaked and circulated. In the video, Russell is heard goading on Young as he discusses past conquests, and the video ends with a snide, satisfied Russell chuckling “I’m glad you told my video all that”.

D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young, via bleacherreport.com

The fallout from the leak has been swift and punishing. On twitter, Russell has been widely labeled a snitch, snake, informant etc. and has had his boyish visage joyously memed into near annihilation. There are also reports coming from inside the Lakers camp that Russell has been ostracized by his newly weary teammates, and after a 48 point thwacking at the hands of a mediocre Utah Jazz team on Monday, it appears this fresh locker room rift has exacerbated an already calamitous season. But beyond being a morbidly humorous story about a really really ill-advised prank going really really disastrously, this is a case study in the kind of murky ethical ambiguity that is so fundamentally antithetical to the spirit of sports.

sportsgrid.com

Who here is the victim?

Is Nick Young the victim, because, in a gross violation of basic human privacy, he was covertly induced to admit past indiscretions on camera, and then had that admission broadcasted to the world? Should he be pitied because the cruel joke of a trusted confidant has likely lead to the dissolution of his relationship, or is he a villain, because he cheated and seemed to boast about his infidelity without any discernible remorse? This begs broader questions about the ethics of consequentialism. Was Russell’s invasion of Young’s privacy rendered acceptable because the consequence of that invasion was the revelation that Young had been unfaithful to his fiancé? Or is there no circumstance wherein a guilty person should be incriminated because their privacy was compromised?

mtv.com

Is D’Angelo Russell the victim, because he lives in a society that elevates young, immature kids to superstardom and then gleefully revels in tearing them down at their first misstep? Should he, as a silly and juvenile 20 year old, face lasting professional repercussions because of an asinine, horribly executed prank? Is it fair that a video he (presumably) never intended to go public got out and opened him up to relentless public ridicule and vilification, and effectively made him a pariah in his workplace? Is he, too, ultimately a victim of invaded privacy?

Is Iggy Azalia the victim? Well, yes. But shouldn’t she be held accountable for this and this!?

It’s ironic that something like this, something so fraught with ethical contradiction, would happen to athletes who are so used to dealing in absolutes. Although it does seem completely apt that those athletes would play for the 15 and 59 Lakers.

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