Snoop Dogg meant no disrespect to African-Americans when he said the struggling Lakers oughta go away on a "slave ship" -- but he did mean to vent about ALL of his favorite teams sucking.
Sources close to the D-O-Double-Gizzle tell TMZ ... the rapper's trash talking -- taken by many as racist -- was totally a heat of the moment thing. We're told the rapper turned on his phone, and impulsively unloaded about his Lakers' embarrassing loss to the last-place Suns.
As we reported ... Snoop went all scorched Earth, saying, "Ship all them n***as out. Get a slave ship, and ship all them sorry mother f**kers the f**k outta here!"
Despite much of the public reaction to Snoop's rant -- our sources were clear ... the rapper doesn't have a single racist bone in his body, especially against his own race.
We're told the die-hard Lakers fan was -- like most fans -- pissed about possibly missing the playoffs, even with LeBron James. It's also a little insult to injury for Snoop ... he's also a Steelers fan and they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
If only he had something to help him chill out ...