Chris Paul/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, on Friday released a statement declaring her support for Chris Paul regarding Paul’s post-game comments Thursday after a loss at Cleveland.

The Clippers were whistled for five technical fouls in the game. One, against Paul in the third quarter called by rookie referee Lauren Holtkamp, drew the ire of Paul and he pulled no punches afterward.

“I think we have to show better composure, but at the same time some of (the technical fouls) were ridiculous,” Paul told ESPN.com afterward. “The tech that I get right there was ridiculous. I don’t care what nobody says, I don’t care what she says; that’s terrible. There’s no way that can be a tech. We try to get the ball out fast every time down the court, and when we did that, she said, ‘Uh-uh.’ I said, ‘Why, uh-uh?’ And she gave me a tech. That’s ridiculous. If that’s the case, this might not be for her.”

The notion that Paul might have been guilty of sexism was shot down by Roberts with this statement that ran in a follow-up story on ESPN.com Friday afternoon:

“Any suggestion that Chris Paul would ever conduct himself in a disrespectful manner towards women is utterly ridiculous, outrageous and patently false,” Roberts said. “His personal management team, which includes several accomplished women who play a major role in virtually all of his business affairs is, alone, evidence of that fact.”

Paul is president of the NBPA and was a big proponent of Roberts’ election to executive director in 2014. Roberts became the first female to lead a major men’s professional sport’s union in North America.

“The Players Association is a strong Exhibit B,” her statement Friday continued. “Anyone paying attention is aware that Chris and his executive committee colleagues were instrumental in making me the first woman executive director of a major men’s professional sports union. Further, Chris and the committee were nothing but wholly supportive of my recent hire of Chrysa Chin – a woman – as the NBPA’s first ever executive vice president of strategy and development.”

Roberts’ response came after the National Basketball Referees Association came with this statement:

“The NBRA has carefully reviewed the calls made by Lauren Holtkamp and deems them fully justified,” NBRA general counsel Lee Seham said in a statement. “Furthermore, the NBRA deplores the personal and unprofessional comments made by Chris Paul. She belongs.”

Chris Paul/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

OK, so once again here is what Chris Paul said following his team’s loss at Cleveland on Thursday, a loss that saw the Clippers whistled for five technical fouls. One of them was on Paul in the third quarter:

“I think we have to show better composure, but at the same time some of (the technical fouls) were ridiculous,” Paul told ESPN.com. “The tech that I get right there was ridiculous. I don’t care what nobody says, I don’t care what she says; that’s terrible. There’s no way that can be a tech. We try to get the ball out fast every time down the court, and when we did that, she said, ‘Uh-uh.’ I said, ‘Why, uh-uh?’ And she gave me a tech. That’s ridiculous. If that’s the case, this might not be for her.”

The “her” Paul was referring to was rookie referee Lauren Holtkamp. Now, I’m not going to go on and on about this because it is the opinion here that this is more of a non-story than anything. First of all, Paul had to say “her” because Holtkamp is a female. That doesn’t mean Paul was insinuating that perhaps “this might not be for her” just because Holtkamp is a woman. It could be he just thinks Holtkamp was way too quick on the trigger and perhaps does not belong in the league if she’s going to continue being that way.

Or do I have to remind people that Paul was a big proponent of Michele Roberts being named executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Here is a July 29, 2014 story from ESPN.com the day of her election, in which Paul is quoted:

“Today, we started out by telling the players how monumental today was,” said Paul, the president of the players association. “We’ve never had this amount of players here for a meeting, to give their input and feedback. After all the hours and time (put in by) our executive committee, along with an amazing search committee that helped throughout this process, it’s an unbelievable feeling to have the wonderful Michele Roberts now as a part of our team.”

Sure, these are different things. Roberts is an executive in a males-only league and Holtkamp is on the floor having something to do with the outcome because she’s a game official. But as someone who has gotten to know Paul over the past couple of seasons as the Clippers’ beat writer for this newspaper, I can tell you that Paul is just not the type to hold gender against someone. That is not him. He is not a sexist pig.

To anyone thinking otherwise, forget about it. Let it go. There is nothing to this, other than frustration from a player whose team is struggling to live up to its lofty preseason expectations.