Houston Rockets star Alperen Sengun has apologized to the female referee he repeatedly called a ‘b***h’, sparking his ejection from a game on Wednesday night.
The Turkish NBA player, 23, was sent to the locker room and quickly went viral on social media after enhanced audio revealed exactly what he said to the rookie official.
Sengun has not yet been given any further punishment in the form of a suspension or fine, but he addressed the incident publicly for the first time on Saturday night.
‘That was immature by me,’ he told reporters after the Rockets’ 112-106 road win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. ‘That was just in the moment, and I said some stuff I shouldn’t say, but I felt bad about it.
‘Sometimes you can’t control yourself, but I should have known better. But I fixed it and then I went to the locker room and I apologized.
‘I shake [her] hand and said that would never happen again. It just happened in the heat of the moment. Then she understood, and it was good on both ends.’
Alperen Sengun questions the decision to eject him from the game on Wednesday night
He was removed from the game for repeatedly calling Jenna Reneau (pictured) a ‘b***h’
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT IN THE CLIP BELOW
The incident occurred midway through the fourth quarter of the loss to the Celtics, after Sengun protested a no-call on his drive to the basket.
Slowed-down footage of the incident showed him first shouting ‘he’s up on me’ to ref Jenna Reneau after she opted against calling a foul. He then turned around and appeared to say ‘you a b****’ to her as he ran away.
Doubling down, he then said ‘f***ing b****’ as he was ejected and sent back to the locker rooms. Remarkably, he then – for a third time – called her a ‘b****’, after she had told one of his teammates ‘he can’t call me that’.
Ironically, the unsavory incident occurred on the exact same day the Rockets had posted on social media celebrating ‘National Girls and Women in Sports Day’.
In a video, star man Kevin Durant explained how women’s basketball had shaped his love for the game.
Hours later, though, Sengun showed the franchise in a far less positive light with his own reflection on the opposite sex.
