Robert Griffin III has found himself at the center of another social media controversy after bizarrely comparing Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers to the Taliban.
Griffin III has only just stepped out of the limelight after being embroiled in an ugly race debate alongside rival TV star Ryan Clark, but he is now back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
At the end of the Knicks-Pacers Game 6 on Saturday night, in which Indiana booked its place in the NBA Finals, Griffin III took to X to post: ‘The Haliban is headed to the NNBA Finals.’
The post immediately rubbed fans up the wrong way, with one claiming it is ‘so damn insensitive’, while another added: ‘Terrorism is nickname worthy?’
A third wrote: ‘Nicknaming someone after a terrorist organization that killed thousands of Americans… interesting choice.’
Meanwhile, one former Air Force pilot noted: ‘No, @RGIII. Absolutely not. Never use that again. You’re from a military family, and that is heinously disrespectful. You’re better than that.’
Robert Griffin III (pictured) has courted fresh controversy with a post referencing the Taliban
On X, Griffin called Tyrese Haliburton the ‘Haliban’ after the Pacers’ win over the Knicks
The war in Afghanistan saw the United States lose a total of 2,459 military personnel between October 2001 and August 2021, with the conflict beginning in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Griffin III has a strong connection to the military, with both of his parents serving as US Army sargeants.
The ex-NFL quarterback was even born in Japan, where his father was stationed in 1990, and he lived at several army bases throughout his childhood.
As of 8am EST on Sunday morning, the post was still up on Griffin III’s X account, and no further comment had been made by the former first-round pick.
Just last week, the 35-year-old was caught at the center of an ugly race scandal, after fellow TV analyst and ex-NFL star Ryan Clark made a shock insult about Griffin and his white wife Grete.
Clark initially took issue with Griffin’s comments about Angel Reese ‘hating’ Caitlin Clark in their ongoing rivalry, saying that Griffin doesn’t know the struggles of black women because the former Washington Commanders quarterback is married to a white woman.
Haliburton celebrates with the Eastern Conference trophy after the Pacers’ Game 6 victory
Griffin was in the headlines last week after he and his wife were dragged into a race debate
Read More Race-driven WNBA feud spills over to NBA after black commentator slammed rival’s white wife 
Clark claimed Griffin ‘is not having conversations at his home about what black women have to endure in this country’ because Griffin’s wife, Estonian heptathlete Grete, is Caucasian.
Days later, Clark issued an apology to the Griffin family for his words and said that he made a mistake involving Grete.
‘Let me say this before getting into reasoning, before getting into thought process: She should not have been brought up in me trying to make a point about how having black women close to you and the things that you learn from them can help you in the way that you approach and speak to and about them,’ Clark said on the latest episode of ‘The Pivot’ podcast that he co-hosts.
‘She didn’t need to be the illustration of that. I could speak positively about what they are without making the insinuation that it’s something that non-Black women don’t do well.’
