Tre King Releases Statement, Leaves Door Open for Return to Georgetown in Future
After a university statement announced he would no longer be on the team, a statement by Tre King on Friday night accepted responsibility for his actions, and left open the possibility of a return.
Tre King released a statement on Friday night in response to a statement released by the Georgetown athletic department on Friday afternoon that said King was no longer on the team and not enrolled in classes.
King accepted responsibility for what he called an “inadvertent mistake”, and said he accepted the decision made by the university. The most notable part of his statement, however, came in the second paragraph, in which King said:
I truly appreciate that the University has given me the opportunity to return to campus in the near future. And I hope that after I return, Coach Ewing will still see me as a valuable addition to the Georgetown basketball team.
The statement, which exudes nothing but class from King, comes as somewhat of a surprise considering the angry comments made by his uncle earlier in the day after the initial statement from Georgetown announcing King was no longer on the team. Tony King has since deleted these tweets, but screenshots are below.
So what changed?
According to multiple sources, the coaching staff was in touch with King and his family last night after the news came down on Friday afternoon. The university’s statement on Friday came as somewhat of a surprise to the coaching staff, who were still hopeful that King would be cleared to play by the university for this upcoming season.
This was a decision that was out of the team’s hands, as indicated by the Georgetown statement which referenced King not meeting the “conduct expectations of the University”, and so there was some level of damage control that had to be done last night in response to the disappointing news received by King.
It’s important to note that despite King’s statement leaving open the door to him returning to Georgetown men’s basketball, there is no handshake agreement between King and the coaching staff that IF he meets certain benchmarks and expectations, he will be allowed back on the team when he returns to campus.
This is an open-ended situation, and while neither side is shutting the door completely on a possible return for King to Georgetown men’s basketball at a later date, there are no guarantees here that King will be allowed to return to the team even if he does address the issues that have brought him to this point.
What does this mean in the short-term? For Georgetown, this means there will be an open competition for its starting center position with 27 days to go until the season opener against Dartmouth. King was expected to play a major role on the team, and there is no clear-cut replacement for him on this team as of now.
For Tre King, he will return home, as his statement reads, to work for his dad— who is a pastor— and his church community. At a later date, King will return to the Hilltop, and we’ll see where things stand for both player and team at that time. He could return to the team, or he also could just take classes. No promises have been made by the program or the university.
Certainly, the Hoyas could use King on this year’s team, but it’s clear that this decision isn’t totally up to Coach Ewing and the program. How the university and its administrators feel about King later on will go a long way in determining his future with Georgetown men’s basketball.
The door is still open for Tre King to return to Georgetown at a later date. But Georgetown fans shouldn’t expect that this will be a cut-and-dry situation that ends up with King returning for the spring semester. This is a fluid situation, and there’s no telling which way this could go down the road right now.