Stephen Jackson on D’Angelo Russell: ‘Snitches get stitches’

Published 12:02 am Thursday, March 31, 2016

Almost a year into his official retirement from basketball, Port Arthur product Stephen Jackson has made headlines again.

Jackson appeared on a Wednesday edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” to discuss a Los Angeles Lakers player’s release of a video he allegedly recorded in secret revealing a conversation with a teammate. In the conversation, HollywoodLife.com reported, rookie D’Angelo Russell gets Nick Young to talk about Young’s cheating on his fiancée, rapper Iggy Azalea. Russell reportedly released the video, but how it became public was not immediately clear.

“SportsCenter” anchor David Lloyd asked Jackson how he would handle such a situation if a teammate betrayed his trust.

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“Hey, snitches get stitches, man,” Jackson responded. “An old rule. Snitches get stitches. Especially from your teammate. It’s a new day in basketball [that] I don’t understand. Like, it’s supposed to be a brotherhood. Now, you got D-Fish [former player and coach Derek Fisher] sleeping with a teammate’s ex-wife, like all kinds of stuff going on. It’s not cool in basketball that, … in the brotherhood, it doesn’t go down. Anything that goes on in the locker room, on the road, you keep it as a team, as a family. It doesn’t get out.”

Jackson’s response was one of the biggest trends on Twitter as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Jackson, who turns 38 on Tuesday, is no stranger to controversy within the NBA. He was involved in one of the biggest in-game brawls in league history during the 2004-05 season with the Indiana Pacers, earning him a 30-game suspension for his role in the “Malice in the Palace” fighting with Detroit Pistons fans.

Jackson was a key player in Lincoln High’s last state championship in 1995 before transferring to national power Oak Hill Academy in Virginia for his senior season. After one season at Butler Community College in Kansas, he spent his first three professional seasons in the Continental Basketball Association and abroad before joining the New Jersey Nets in 2000.

He spent 14 seasons with the Nets, San Antonio Spurs (two stints), Atlanta Hawks, Pacers, Golden State Warriors, Charlotte Bobcats, Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers. He was waived by the Clippers in January 2014 and announced his retirement last July.

ESPN reported in an online story that the Russell video’s release has caused a rift between him and his teammates. Citing sources, the network reported that the tension was one of the factors in the Lakers’ worst margin of defeat in franchise history, a 48-point loss to the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City. It added none of Russell’s teammates would sit at the table with him during a breakfast meeting.

Lakers coach Byron Scott told ESPN he hasn’t talked to Russell about the video. Russell reportedly declined comment about his video.

Russell is a rookie point guard from Ohio State who averages 13.1 points per game this season. Young is a ninth-year shooting forward from Southern California who’s scoring only 7.3 per game this season, down from his 11.8 career average.

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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