A few months ago, I wrote a blog about Wander Franco and his reported relationship with a 14 year old girl. The news then was pretty surprising, and I figured it had to be very rare to see a rising star in a professional sport caught in inappropriate “romantic” entanglements with minors, particularly in the age of social media and cameras where it’s probably harder to hide. I was under the impression that that Franco blog would be the last blog I wrote on that topic, at least for 2023.
Josh Giddey has pulled me back into the game.
I will start this by saying that I’m not privy to whatever the whole truth is, nor is pretty much anyone, so maybe this is all a misunderstanding. I don’t know. This blog is not meant to defame or accuse Josh Giddey. We are A2Z Sports, not the New York Times. Also we don’t want to have to bring out the full force of our A2Z legal department for a lawsuit.
I will also reiterate from my Franco blog that we here at A2Z Sports maintain our firm stance against professional athletes (or really any adult) having romantic/sexual relationships with minors. We foster an anti-pedo environment within our organization. We cannot speak for ESPN’s stance on the matter.
Alright, back to Giddey.
I get that he’s from Australia, but the age of consent here isn’t something you should go down under.
Assuming this occurred in Oklahoma, considering that’s where Giddey plays, according to a quick search, the age of consent there is 16. And the girl in question is 17 now, if I’m understanding this correctly. I’m not sure how long the relationship lasted or when it started, so maybe she was 16 when it was happening, but I don’t know if it could’ve been happening before that. There were rumors that the girl was 15, and rumors that it actually occurred in California (age of consent is 18 there), and in that case, the situation is even worse. Although Giddey is currently 21 years old, and the girl is under 18, I guess this could’ve been legal if she was 16 or older and in Oklahoma. So Giddey might get some bonus points over Wander Franco’s alleged situation for not committing statutory rape. It’s unclear as of now.
I get that it’s technically legal but it doesn’t really make the whole thing any less weird or creepy to me. I mean, imagine a 21 year old college senior getting with a local high school junior. Super weird, right? It seems like a bit much in terms of a difference in their stages of life. I feel like it makes it even worse that it’s a guy who’s been in the NBA for multiple seasons and a high schooler. I mean, this guy has tens of millions of dollars coming towards him through contracts and endorsements, he probably has his own place and has been living on his own out in the real world. He has a whole ass career. He is a certified adult. She has sixth period geometry class and cheerleading practice.
To make it even worse, with him being a young star in the NBA, he shouldn’t be lacking a pool of available beautiful women (who are, and I cannot stress this enough, 18 and over). Now I’ve never been a star NBA player (not yet, at least; my jumper is improving and I can graze rim), but I assume that pretty much any NBA player of Josh Giddey’s level can shoot off a DM to any number of Instagram models and have a relatively high success rate with getting some action.
Or maybe Giddey was looking for a more genuine connection that an Instagram linkup couldn’t provide. Dude… you’re a 6’8” conventionally decent-looking millionaire with an Australian accent and good connections. GET YOURSELF A DATE WITH AN ADULT! It would legitimately be easier than a layup. I’ve even done it, and the highest level of basketball I ever played was B-league college intramurals. If this was an intentional “rendezvous” with a high schooler, he is actively choosing a high schooler over a notable chunk of the hot adult women population. That, my readers, is weirdo behavior.
I’ll now cover what I hope, for the sake of Josh Giddey and society, is the case for what happened. The only way this whole situation becomes understandable is if Giddey met her in a place for adults and he was misled (by her direct actions) in terms of her age. That is, if he met her in a club that’s 21+ (or even 18+) and she entered with a fake ID, then once in there, if asked, identified herself as 18 or older. And if or when he figured out she was under 18, he cut it off immediately. In that case, fine. I get how it could have happened, and it wouldn’t be nearly as weird.
If I’m being honest, if you told me this girl was 19 or 20, I would’ve believed you. Girls can definitely look older than they are and amplify that effect with makeup and other cosmetic changes. I don’t think most people would place a ton of blame on Giddey if he was thoroughly fooled by the hypothetical scenario I presented in the previous paragraph. The issue that arises is that there seems to be way too many photos and videos of the two together to write this off as a one time thing. One video even seems to have the girl claiming they were dating. Because of this, I have a hard time believing that Giddey didn’t know what he was doing. Ew.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0ClF4HP5UJ/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&img_index=3
Well, that about covers it. I hope I don’t have to write any more of these, but I’ll now have to consider the possibility of another young rising athlete canoodling with a kid. Wonder who the betting favorite is on that one. Haven’t seen that line on DraftKings.
For now, Giddey might just want to focus on getting his career points-per-game and his average dating pool age above 14.6.