The 21-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder guard became the subject of in November after Newport Beach officers were made aware of the allegations.
Australian basketball star Josh Giddey is no longer under police investigation.Getty Images
,when images circulated of a shirtless Giddey standing behind a woman,with claims that she was underage. The post was deleted and the social media account which published it was deactivated.
The Newport Beach Police Department announced on January 18 that they would not pursue charges after the department was “unable to corroborate any criminal activity related to Mr Giddey”.
The NBA conducted its own investigation and came to the same result,ESPN reported on Thursday.
Giddey,21,was not suspended during the police inquiry and appeared in 80 games this season,. He averaged 12.3 points,6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists,all career lows,which has fostered talk that he may be traded to another NBA team.
The Aussie NBA star has been cleared by the league over allegations he had an improper relationship with an underage girl.
The Thunder selected the Australian with the No.6 overall pick of the 2021 NBA draft.
The 21-year-old is bound for the Olympics with Australia’s Boomers.
The Melburnian has not commented about the allegations,and he,his agent Daniel Moldovan and his family declined to comment on Friday when contacted by this masthead. Basketball Australia also declined to comment.
He continued to play for the Thunder during their run to the western conference semi-finals,which they lost 4-2 to the Dallas Mavericks
He did score 21 points – hitting three late triples - in a series-sealing sweep of New Orleans in the first round,and had enjoyed a run of strong form in April while star pair Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams were injured.
That is the Giddey the Boomers will hope to call on in Paris from July,where the 2021 NBL rookie of the year is set to pilot the charge for the bronze medallists from the Tokyo Games.
But in a recent interview withThe Oklahoman,Giddey became emotional when speaking about his year,and that he hoped to stay with the Thunder.
“There’s been days where you don’t feel like getting out of bed for a number of reasons,” Giddey said during his exit interview last Sunday. “As I said,I’m just lucky to have people around me that care,that were there for me. Coming in the gym every day,seeing my teammates,that helps.
Josh Giddey is key to the Boomers in Paris.Getty Images
“I love it here. This is home away from home. I love everything about this place,the city,the fans. Every time I wake up in the morning,I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to see the guys.”
Boomers coach Brian Goorjian has offered his support to Giddey throughout,and visited him in the US as part of Olympic preparations late last year,where he witnessed the abuse aimed at Giddey.
“The ball was passed into Josh and it was like the whole stadium[was booing] – it was like wow and this goes on the whole time while behind me there were really spiteful catcalls,” Goorjian told this masthead in January.
“There was a lot of security and it was like ‘man,this is full on’.
“We had the chance to chat to Josh in the tunnel post game,and I’ve seen the villain role before,seen plenty of booing in Australian sport,but this was on another level and some staff from the team said it has been worse in other cities.
“I’ve always felt he is an integral part of our team,and we do a lot of work on culture and he is a big part of that as well.
“He goes into the process moving forward of being an Andrew Gaze or a Patty Mills – I think he is going to be a big part of the Boomers for a long,long,long period of time and it is very important to him and something he enjoys.”
Reuters,with Jessica McSweeney and AAP
News,results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday..