The NBA is reportedly investigating allegations that Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey, 21, had a relationship with a minor.
According to ESPN, the allegations surfaced on social media earlier in the week when “an anonymous social media user said a girl who is seen with Giddey in videos and photographs was a high school junior at the time.”
The anonymous social media user has reportedly since deactivated their account.
“A now-deleted video and image showed Giddey with his arms around her, and though the authenticity is debated, screenshots have circulated online,” Marca notes.
A video has also emerged showing a minor named Liv Cook bragging about having once dated Giddey.
“Hey guys! I’m dating Josh. We don’t have to talk about it,” Cook said in the video.
When questioned about the matter on Friday, both Giddey and his coach, Mark Daigneault, claimed they had nothing to say.
“I understand the question obviously, but there’s no further comment right now,” Giddey told reporters.
Listen:
Josh Giddey was asked about the allegations that went viral on social media the past few days. pic.twitter.com/yVr5gOku0x
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) November 24, 2023
“I get the question, guys. I completely understand you guys want to know about it. Just for right now, I don’t have anything to say,” he added when pressed further.
Listen:
Josh Giddey was asked a follow up about the situation: pic.twitter.com/BqkB7uk3DZ
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) November 24, 2023
“Personal matter, and I have no comment on it. And that’ll be my comment on anything related,” Daigneault likewise said.
Listen:
Mark Daigneault was asked about the Josh Giddey situation: pic.twitter.com/VfKsPP31m0
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) November 24, 2023
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon later confirmed that via an NBA spokesperson, the league is now looking into the allegations.
Look:
The league is looking into allegations that Thunder guard Josh Giddey has been involved in an improper relationship with an underage girl, an NBA spokesman said. Giddey and OKC coach Mark Daigneault declined to comment on the matter after practice today.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 24, 2023
So who exactly is Giddey?
“Giddey didn’t play college basketball. Instead, he rose through the developmental ranks in Australia, including the NBA Global Academy and the Australian Institute for Sport. The Thunder selected him with the No. 6 pick in the 2021 NBA draft,” according to station WPRI.
“Giddey is averaging 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game for Oklahoma City (11–4), which sits just a half-game behind the Timberwolves in second place in the Western Conference standings,” the station reported Friday.
Stories of NBA players hooking up with minors aren’t commonplace. Back in 2015, the New York Post ran a story about one such rare incident that occurred nearly 20 years ago when Phoenix Suns star Kevin Johnson “faced allegations of molesting a 15-year-old girl.”
Charges were ultimately never filed because the alleged victim, Mandi Koba, accepted a settlement to stay quiet. However, in 2015 she finally opened up about the affair in an online piece.
“Koba detail[ed] how her relationship with Johnson began with him as a mentor, but quickly devolved into him using his influence and notoriety to take advantage of her through unwanted sexual advances, which included fondling while both were naked,” according to the Post.
“A police investigation deemed there was insufficient evidence to move forward — though Johnson is quoted in a police report saying, ‘[a] hug was more intimate than it should have been,’ and Koba received more than $230,000 in exchange for never speaking about the alleged incidents other than to ‘a priest, a therapist, or a lawyer,'” the Post reported.
Koba has since become a left-wing activist:
I’m excited that the 3rd direct cash transfer/ #guaranteedincome Pilot I’ve worked on has launched! #Virginia #UBI https://t.co/DzBvcl0S4t
— Mandi Koba (@mandi_koba) August 23, 2023
“I’ve been called a sick slut in the media, a gold digger, an unreliable victim. I’ve had attorneys infer that the man who abused me had much more attractive women, options, so the idea that he’d sexually abuse me, a minor, was ludicrous. I’ve had my perpetrator — that’s what he is, a perpetrator, not someone who just made a mistake — held up as an example, a leader, a trusted advisor,” Koba wrote in an essay in 2015.
“I am every victim of sexual assault by a celebrity, a professional athlete, a politician, who has been silenced. I’ve been afraid to speak, come forward and tell my story. But no more. It’s time,” she added.
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