Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey is under investigation by the NBA and the Newport Beach Police Department for an alleged sexual relationship with a female minor.
An image of Giddey with and an alleged under-age girl made its way around social media triggered the investigation.
Active Investigation
According to TMZ, the alleged girl’s family is not cooperating with the investigation. That’s a whole different kind of privilege.
“The Newport Beach Police Department is aware of information being circulated online involving an alleged relationship between professional basketball player Josh Giddey and a female minor,” the statement read, in part. “The Newport Beach Police Department is actively seeking additional information related to these allegations and pursuing all leads and evidence to obtain the facts of the case.
“The Newport Beach Police Department aims to ensure a fair and thorough investigative process while maintaining the privacy and dignity of everyone involved. At this time, NBPD Detectives are still conducting an active investigation.”
What Can The Police Do If There Is No Cooperation?
The alleged photo is from the summer of 2022, Giddey would have been 20 going on 21 then. That is a legal adult. The girl is alleged to have been a high school junior at the time. That age is either 16 or 17. You can see the problem.
Giddey has declined to comment about the allegations. Oklahoma City head coach Mark Daigneault has referred to the allegations as a “personal matter” and declined further comment other than saying the organization made the decision for Giddey to continue playing based on the facts the Thunder have.
NBA teams and the league overall have security and investigative personnel that used to be former law enforcement. Former police officers, FBI agents, with the ability to access sensitive information. They can find out the information they need to about players. The fact that the Thunder are still allowing Giddey to continue to play says so much.
Young girls are often over-sexualized and taken advantage of in society and often people in positions of power allow that to happen.
If the girl and her family are not willing to cooperate or if they provide police with “satisfactory” answers to their questions, there is not much more that can be done.
There has been commentary online from NBA fans wondering why Giddey is still allowed to play and isn’t suspended. At this point all we have are allegations and an open investigation.
