Hours after the referee Rajon Rondo assaulted with homophobic slurs announced he was gay, the Kings guard apologized (sort of) on Twitter for his comments.
My actions during the game were out of frustration and emotion, period!
— Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo) December 14, 2015
They absolutely do not reflect my feelings toward the LGBT community. I did not mean to offend or disrespect anyone.
— Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo) December 14, 2015
Rondo called referee Bill Kennedy a “mother——- f—-t” after being ejected from a game on Dec. 3. The NBA announced Monday that Rondo will be suspended one game for the incident.
In his “apology,” the 29-year-old reached right for the “in the moment” defense, then said he didn’t mean to offend anyone even though his word choice was inherently offensive. Unsurprisingly, many people were not satisfied with the mea culpa.
That Rajon Rondo "apology" perfectly exemplifies why forcing someone to make a phony apology for pr purposes is stupid.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) December 14, 2015
No chance in hell Larry David/George Constanza would consider those two Rajon Rondo tweets "an apology"
— Dekadente (@0xDakedenta) December 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/MattJ_onNFL/status/676531241756196864
Rajon Rondo's Tweet-apology is meaningless. Lots of us get angry & don't spew vile, hateful, derogatory things. He has serious work to do.
— Wendy Thurm (@wendythurm.bsky.social) (@wendythurm) December 14, 2015
Even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich chimed in Monday, calling Rondo’s language “disgusting.”
Full quote from Gregg Popovich on Rajon Rondo/Bill Kennedy situation pic.twitter.com/Cd3p3n5q3v
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) December 14, 2015
There’s really no defense for what Rondo said, but the least he could have done was issue a sincere apology. This could be one of those situation where someone has to apologize again for a crappy apology. Some mention of Kennedy would be nice, and the words, “I’m sorry” wouldn’t hurt either.