Sacramento Kings point guard Rajon Rondo offered a poor excuse for an apology on his Twitter account after Bill Kennedy, the referee he hurled homophobic slurs at, announced he was gay.
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
The paltry apology was dumbfounding. Rondo received a small one game suspension for the on-court remarks, which was surprisingly light.
Our own Alex Putterman predicted, “This could be one of those situation where someone has to apologize again for a crappy apology,” and it turns out he was right.
Rondo issued a second apology today, this time mentioning Kennedy by name. In the statement, Rondo says he wanted to make things clear, that there is no place on or off the court for that type of language, apologizing from the bottom of his heart.
https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/676883061146042368
“Yesterday, I said that my words toward Bill Kennedy were unacceptable and did not reflect my feelings toward the LGBT community. Some have interpreted my comments as a non-apology. I want to be clear, from the bottom of my heart that I am truly sorry for what I said to Bill. There is no place on or off the court for language that disrespects anyone’s sexual orientation. That is not who I am or what I believe and I will strive every day to be a better person.”
That’s a better effort by Rondo, but it’s kind of negated by the fact of how poorly he handled the situation to begin with. Rondo 100% doesn’t clarify his previous statement without the backlash he received. He had a chance to sincerely apologize the first time and passed on it. It makes the statement seem empty.
Kings G Rajon Rondo is now shooting the same percentage on apology statements (1-for-2, 50%) as he is from the FT line (24-for-48, 50%).
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 15, 2015
So it’s good that Kennedy finally got a direct apology for Rondo’s hateful words, but bad because it took the point guard two attempts to do it somewhat properly.
