(The Root) — Why waste time having your public relations team release an official statement when you can do it yourself via social media? That seems to be NBA star Nick Young's logic.
The Philadelphia 76er is being sued by a woman alleging that he raped her two years ago. Young has vehemently denied the allegations, and NBC Sports reports that he took to Instagram to speak officially on the matter yesterday. He put up a picture of the late Tupac Shakur, along with the quote "Don't believe everything you hear. Real eyes, realize, real lies." He added, "I was shocked with the amount of people who actually believed that Swaggy would do such a thing! I take my craft and my reputation seriously. I have a son that looks up to me as well as fans that are children. I would never want them to think of me in such a way." The picture and comments have since been deleted.
It turns out that Instagram isn't just for publicly denying accusations; it's for making them, too. Rihanna threw a couple of darts at her ex-flame J.R. Smith yesterday, saying that the reason he hasn't been playing very well is that he's been hungover from clubbing every night. Instagram seems to be on a fast track to joining Twitter as a battleground for celeb drama.
Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.