Lakers try to squash sex harassment accusations against players

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles Lakers spokesman said there are “different interpretations” about what happened during an interaction between players Nick Young and Jordan Clarkson and a woman who accused them of harassing her.

Coach Byron Scott also said he spoke with the players about Sunday night’s incident in Hollywood with Alexis Jones, an activist and public speaker against sexual harassment and domestic violence. The Lakers haven’t indicated any intention of taking disciplinary action against Young or Clarkson.

“The situation is just a miscommunication on both sides,” Clarkson said after leading the Lakers with 22 points in a 107-100 victory over Memphis on Tuesday night. “We don’t want to go into further detail on who’s right and who’s wrong in that situation, but at the end of the day, it was a miscommunication.”

Jones claims that at least one of the two players gestured obscenely at her and her mother while the parties’ cars were stopped at an intersection. After Jones posted the players’ photos on Instagram with a message describing “disgustingly vulgar gestures” made by some of the four men in the car, commenters informed her that the men were Young and Clarkson.

Team spokesman John Black said the Lakers have spoken to Jones, Young and Clarkson about what happened.

“Our conclusion is that there are different interpretations of what happened,” Black said. “We support Nick and Jordan and believe what they told us about the incidents and their actions. We also are supportive of Alexis and her feelings about what happened, about women’s rights, and of the fine work Alexis is doing with her organization.”

Clarkson and Young, who didn’t play against the Grizzlies, both spoke briefly before boarding a team flight to Phoenix. While neither player offered any details or their interpretation of the incident, Young said its 48-hour escalation was “a bold statement.”

“You’ve just got to watch your surroundings,” he said. “We live in a world where social media plays a big part in what you do, so you’ve just got to be careful about your surroundings and where you’re at.”

Black said the Lakers attempted to arrange a meeting among Jones, Young and Clarkson to talk about what happened, but Jones’ schedule didn’t permit it. He said the Lakers are interested in inviting Jones to address the team about issues of respect.

“I talked to those guys (Monday) about that incident,” Scott said Tuesday night before the game. “My conversation with them is always private, and we’re just going to leave it at that.”

Clarkson is the Lakers’ starting shooting guard, ranking second on the team with 15.5 points per game. He has emerged as a dependable NBA regular in two seasons since the club drafted him in the second round out of Missouri.

Young is a Los Angeles native and a flamboyant backup guard for the Lakers, although the USC product nicknamed “Swaggy P.” has made increasingly meager scoring contributions this season. He is engaged to Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.

The Lakers are the Western Conference’s worst team at 15-55 even after beating Memphis to snap a four-game skid.