‘USA Today’ Digs Up ‘Offensive’ Tweet from 7 Years Ago, to Attack Villanova’s Donte DiVincenzo

Looking for something salacious to attack Villanova guard Donte DiVincenzo on the day of his team’s big win, USA Today found a seven-year-old “offensive” tweet that the player posted when he was a 14-year-old kid.

USA Today sports writer Josh Peter slammed DiVincenzo for the 2011 tweet in which the future player used a snippet of a rapper’s lyrics that contained the “N-word.” Peters wagged his finger at DiVincenzo exclaiming that “the Internet never forgets” and scolding the player for saying “something awkward or offensive.”

“On Monday an old tweet from the account of Villanova guard Donte DiVincenzo re-emerged just as he was being named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four,” Peter said breathlessly.

The player’s 31 points were the most ever scored by a sixth man right off the bench in a national title game.

The old tweet contained a snippet of the Meek Mill song Derrick Rose. With the song only a week old at the time, DiVincenzo tweeted the following segment: “Ballin on these niggas like I’m derrick rose!”

DiVincenzo confirmed that the twitter account containing the 2011 tweet was his. But he insisted that he does not remember posting the thing. The player also noted he hasn’t posted anything on Twitter since 2016.

But DiVincenzo was a 14-year-old kid at the time the tweet was posted, likely trying to be cool by posting a rapper’s lyrics.

Trying to defuse the criticism, Villanova said in a statement that the account had been hacked and was deactivated. But the school later withdrew the “hacked” claim.

The “offensive” tweets were dug up by Twitter user @CollegeT0wn.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.