--- description: Pat Garofalo was criticized for jokily suggesting that if NBA teams were to fold, street crime might increase. He says he was talking about NBA's high arrest rate. title: Minnesota lawmaker sends offensive NBA tweet image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Minnesota Lawmaker's NBA Tweet Called Offensive by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 10, 2014 4:22 PM CUT by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 10, 2014 4:22 PM CUT A tweet by Minnesota Republican State Rep. [Pat Garofalo](http://patgarofalo.com/ "undefined") about the NBA went viral Sunday night, with many responding to the message calling it racially insensitive. > [](https://twitter.com/PatGarofalo/status/442805513697628160) In a statement [sent to Buzzfeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/minnesota-republican-lawmaker-sends-racist-tweet-about-nba-p "undefined") responding to the backlash, Garofalo said: “I was talking about the NBA’s high arrest rate and that their punishment for positive drugs tests are weaker than other leagues. No intent beyond that. The culture among many pro athletes that they are above the law is the problem, not people like me pointing that problem out.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/18428/minnesota-lawmaker-nba-tweet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/18428/minnesota-lawmaker-nba-tweet/"},"headline":"Minnesota Lawmaker's NBA Tweet Called Offensive","datePublished":"2014-03-10T16:22:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:41:00.922Z","description":"Pat Garofalo was criticized for jokily suggesting that if NBA teams were to fold, street crime might increase. He says he was talking about NBA's high arrest rate.","url":"https://time.com/18428/minnesota-lawmaker-nba-tweet/","keywords":["twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/18428/minnesota-lawmaker-nba-tweet/","name":"Minnesota Lawmaker's NBA Tweet Called Offensive"}}]}] ```