San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin denied flipping the bird to a referee during his team’s loss to New Mexico Saturday. SDSU was trailing by 11 before halftime of the Mountain West Conference tournament finals when Franklin was whistled for a foul. Franklin was frustrated and seemed to flip the bird to the ref, but he denied that after the game.
‘No, not at all,” the conference player of the year said.
San Diego State reporter Edward Lewis tweeted otherwise, saying that Franklin flipped off the ref. When someone suggested Franklin was flipping off a group of New Mexico fans, Lewis insisted it was directed toward the ref. Franklin also reportedly went after the same ref later in the game, using profanity.
The evidence is mounted against him, but without having seen a replay, I guess we’ll have to take Franklin’s word on it for now.
Uncensored version of the picture below:
UPDATE: Franklin apologized on Sunday, but said his middle finger was not directed toward referee…rather a Lobos fan who called him the N word.
Picture via Brian Enderson
