Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey could reportedly lose a sponsorship worth $40 million following allegations he had an improper relationship with an underage girl.
Last week, it was reported that the NBA had launched an investigation into the allegations of Giddey’s relationship with an underage girl. “The NBA is looking into the allegations of Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey having an inappropriate relationship with a minor that have emerged via social media, league spokesman Mike Bass said,” The Athletic’s Shams Charania confirmed.
We are now receiving some damning information from a former NBA player.
Former NBA big man and No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew Bogut presented some new information about the situation.
“From what I understand from the people I’ve spoken to… Just put it out there – if Josh was 19, 21, 22, and was knowingly seeking out on a 15-year-old girl, absolutely despicable behavior, I’m strongly against it. I don’t think this is that from what I understand. If I’m wrong, I’ll come back and apologize,” Bogut said during his Rogue Bogues podcast. “I don’t think this is that. I think the girl was younger. From what I understand, the girl in question lied about her age and said that she was of age at the time.”
“This has also happened over a year ago now. I don’t think this is something that’s happened recently, much to the people thinking on social media it has. It’s just hard to give a proper comment on this until this plays out.
OKC have been aware of this from what I’m told for the last year, they’ve known about it. They deemed Josh free to play, they didn’t see any concerns. The NBA have allowed that [to play for Giddey], which is kind of telling because when these things happen, the NBA really tries to take a couple of games off to even this thing out,” Bogut continued.
Bogut added no legal action is expected to come out of the whole situation.
“On the flip side, I don’t think they can do anything, even if there was some smoke to this fire, until there are formal charges filed. Per the CBA, pending an internet Twitter investigation they can’t step down a player from playing. He’d have to agree to it. They can’t just say, ‘You step down.’ He’s not been formally charged, I don’t think he’s been interviewed by police about this,” Bogut said.
“I think it occurred in California, where the age of consent is 18, which does throw a spanner in the works as to did Josh know she was underage. I’m told that’s what he was told. I think he knows she was underage, but I was told he was thinking she was overage.
Just a messy situation for everyone involved. I think for this to go down the legal, the girl in question or her family have to formally press charges saying that he knowingly knew she was of this age. From what I understand, that will not happen because the girl lied about her age,” the former NBA player concluded.
Giddey declined to comment when asked about the situation at the Thunder’s media availability Friday — and hasn’t missed a game since the allegations first emerged on social media late Wednesday night.
Photo and video footage of Giddey and a girl were posted that alleged the woman in question was underage at the time when Giddey was over 18. The player is seen calling her ‘his girl’, while one of the photos from her Snapchat profile has a caption of the two having sexual relations together.
