Indiana Pacers star Roy Hibbert's recent struggles reportedly stem from learning teammate Paul George slept with his wife, Valerie Cooke.
BallerAlert.com, a gossip blog, posted an anonymous email it received on Monday:
"Do you remember when Lance Stephenson and Evan Turner got into that fight? It was all over Roy Hibbert and Paul George. Lance has been getting all the blame for the Pacers off nights and during that day at practice Lance says 'y'all need to look at Roy's ass, he's been off ever since he found out PG was f------ his b----.' That's when Evan got mad at him for exposing that in front of everybody and that sparked the fight.
"Roy just walked away without saying anything but ever since then it's been a bigger downfall in his performance on the court. ... Supposedly PG and Hibbert's wife have been carrying on through instagram for a while before they ended up having sex. She felt guilty and told Hibbert and that's how he found out originally. It's bad because PG and Hibbert were really friends."
The website acknowledged it cannot confirm the accuracy of the story, but the rumor nonetheless spread quickly. BallerAlert.com also reported hearing at least one other instance of George "messing around" with Hibbert's wife.
Whether the woman in question, Cooke, is actually Hibbert's wife is uncertain. Purported photos of the the two exist, but several websites indicate she is his fiancée.
Hibbert and Cooke met while attending Georgetown together and became engaged in 2012, according to Playerwives.com. They were scheduled to marry in 2013, but the website says the wedding never happened.
Although Hibbert called teammates "selfish" in March, there's no indication he was referring to George.
George seemingly dismissed the affair rumor on Tuesday with a tweet.
These rumors have got to stop! Its gettin old now and all you that believe them are ignorant! #Brothers https://t.co/381NcYY5Vo
— Paul George (@Paul_George24) May 6, 2014
The only thing for certain is Hibbert's performance plummeted down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs. He's coming off a 102-96 loss on Monday to the Washington Wizards, who limited him to zero points and zero rebounds.
