Athlete and longtime Drake stan Lolo Jones had plenty to say about the infamous comment she made about her date with NBA star Blake Griffin, and the double standard female athletes face when it comes to these very public interactions. Speaking with USA Today, Jones talked about her upcoming race, spraying on six pack abs and navigating the tricky and judgemental world of being a female athlete on social media.
"If you look at a male athlete, he can go on all these Instagram model’s or any female’s page, and write heart emojis and write a text, and no one will say he's a thot, no one will say he’s trying to hook up with this girl," she explained, "but the moment any girl athlete writes on another athlete’s page, it’s all, ‘She’s a thot! She’s this and that, she’s trying to bang that guy,’ and it’s very frustrating."
She says her date with Griffin happened years ago, in the power forward's rookie year in the NBA. The two remain friends and she insists she adds her online quips for kicks, but knows that people assume the worst from the outside. She explained the reply in question was actually in response to a fan who assumed she was pursuing the recently traded Griffin. "They were saying ‘You want to hook up with him!’" she clarified, "I was like, nah, I actually already went on a date with him and it wasn’t a good date."
It's something she says happens to her regularly, though the Griffin comment is the one that happened to go viral. "I made a joke on Jimmy Butler’s page because he was wearing an LSU hoodie. I texted Jimmy before, and said, ‘Hey Jimmy, this is the caption I want to put on your page.’ He said do it! I said, I don’t know. I don’t want the backlash. And he said, ‘Do it! It’s hilarious!’ And of course what happens? I get all the backlash."
When asked if Griffin paid on the date all those years ago, Jones responded, "He paid. I mean, he’s made millions of dollars. He better pay!"
