Jalen Rose says he and his wife, Molly Qerim, are not to blame for LaVar Ball being banned from appearing on ESPN.
Rose addressed the situation during an Instagram Live video, in which he explained that he nor Qerim forced ESPN's hand in anyway. In fact, Rose says that he has texted LaVar multiple times since the incident occurred on June 17, but he hasn't be able to "track him down."
Says Rose (h/t USA Today):
“Molly talks to TMZ, and they ask her a question about ‘how do you feel about LaVar being banned?’ She clearly said ‘that’s above my pay grade, I don’t know anything about that.’
…. She and I didn’t send no texts, no emails, no overtures to get anybody banned from ESPN – the company that we work for and don’t own, fools.”
Check out Rose's full comments in the video embedded below.
In regards to those who have criticized Qerim in the aftermath, which includes former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, Rose adds:
“Then it went to, ‘oh Molly, you got a black man banned from ESPN.’ Y’all know she’s married to a black husband, right? She’s covered the NFL, the NBA, college basketball, MMA… she’s been doing this for 15 years. She knows how to navigate. She knows how to take care of herself.
Somebody pays her to talk about sports. She’s a vet. So this idea that she woke up that morning and like, ‘oh, I’m going to see what I can do to try to trap LaVar.’ It didn’t have nothing to do with his race, fools… If she felt some type of way about what he said, then she felt some type of way about what he said. And you know what? I’m riding with her.”
“Regardless of where you stand – you can feel that what he said was inappropriate. You can feel that she overreacted. However you feel, you’re entitled to your opinion. But you know what you’re not allowed to do? Is tell her how to feel.”