CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The Charlotte Hornets should never have drafted Jalen McDaniels in the second round of the NBA draft.
I don't mean the 6-10 forward was picked too high or too low on Thursday night. I mean that the Hornets should have never waded into the McDaniels mess at all, instead staying far away from a player who has been sued by two former female high school classmates in Washington state. Each of the women claim in separate lawsuits that, in 2016, McDaniels secretly recorded them without their consent while they were performing sexual acts.
Before you downplay what he did, before you tell me McDaniels was 17 at the time and that everyone does stupid stuff as a teenager, let me ask you this: What if one of these young women had been your daughter? Would you still be cool with the Hornets' decision?
Drafting McDaniels sends a message to Hornets fans, particularly to the women and girls who support the team, and it's not a pretty one. It says that the Hornets are willing to take a chance on a player who has admitted in court documents to both the videotaping and to then sharing the sex videos with a "small group of close friends" before deleting them.
McDaniels hid in the closet to tape a teammate having sex with one of the women, according to the court documents.
In the other tape, he was involved in a consensual sexual act with a woman and videotaped it without her knowledge, according to the documents. The size of the viewing audience for that footage remains in dispute. The victim says in her complaint that fellow students told her that McDaniels had "widely circulated" the video of the sex acts between him and her.
The Hornets haven't explained why they decided to select a player with such obvious red flags. On draft night, when Charlotte picked McDaniels out of San Diego State with the No. 52 overall pick, general manager Mitch Kupchak told reporters this: "Quite frankly it's a legal matter, and I'm not prepared to comment on it. But we've been aware of it for months. Really, that's about all I can say about it."
The Observer has since given the Hornets several more opportunities to explain their reasoning. The team has decided to make no comment beyond a prepared statement that read: "We are aware of the civil lawsuit involving Jalen McDaniels and are monitoring developments in the case. As this is a pending legal matter, it is inappropriate for us to comment at this time."
I would argue that it's very appropriate for the Hornets to comment. They don't need to talk specifics about what McDaniels did and didn't do. But I do believe they owe their fans an explanation as to why this team _ owned by Michael Jordan, well-established with its community service, attempting to recapture the Hornets' local relevance of 25-30 years ago _ would ever choose him in the first place.
It is important to note that no criminal charges were ever filed against McDaniels. In a report by the Seattle Times, prosecutors in King County, Wash., said police failed to find "sexual motivation" by McDaniels in the incidents, which is an essential part of proving criminal voyeurism.
But the young women's lives have been damaged for years, their lawsuits say. Since the videos were seen by others, the women were victims of "slut-shaming," they say in the complaints. They both attempted suicide, and each of those unsuccessful attempts was directly related to McDaniels' videos, according to their attorney.
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