Cavs" Dahntay Jones goes after Donald Trump over "locker room talk"
ATLANTA — Now Dahntay Jones is taking on Donald Trump over what constitutes “locker room talk.”
Self-promoting sexual assault, as Trump was caught on tape doing in 2005, isn’t it, Jones said. A fury erupted over the release of that tape on Friday, and Trump, whose candidacy was rocked by the backlash from the tape, tried to explain his language as “locker room talk” over the weekend.
“I thought it was an unfair characterization of what goes on in our locker rooms,” said Jones, a Cavs reserve guard/forward who took to Twitter to denounce Trump’s claim on Sunday. “I thought it was basically ignorant and I just didn’t agree with it.”
Claiming Trump’s comments are “locker room banter” is to suggest they are somehow acceptable. They aren’t.
— Dahntay (@dahntay1) October 9, 2016
On the tape, Trump was speaking privately (he thought) with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, and bragged about pushing himself on a woman and being able to get away with it because he was a celebrity. Among Trump’s boasts to Bush was a claim that he could grab women by a private body part.
Trump apologized over the weekend for his remarks, but also tried to brush them aside as “locker room talk.”
“When I initially heard it, it made me uncomfortable and I knew it was wrong just in general,” Jones said. “As I kept hearing it and hearing it, it just naturally came to me to say how I felt.”
In the past there have been notable examples of female reporters being verbally assaulted by male pro athletes in locker rooms. Perhaps the most notable example, in 1990, was when then-Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olsen was harassed by members of the New England Patriots. The players were fined for their behavior.
Those kinds of incidents have greatly declined in recent years.
“We talk about all types of different issues,” said Jones, 35. “We talk about politics, we talk about basketball, we talk about women. But we never make the conversation about making sexual advances at women, taking advantage of women. Those are just things that doesn’t go on in our locker rooms.
“There are conversations that we have amongst men that’s never in that tone or never insensitive as that tone was. Women are a topic for men in general but it’s not in that direction. And it just wasn’t fair to characterize what goes on in our locker room.”
Last week, Cavs superstar LeBron James endorsed Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. And on Monday, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert met with Clinton during her campaign swing through Detroit.
Cavs" Dahntay Jones goes after Donald Trump over "locker room talk"
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