The current American environment supports doing whatever you can get away with and then when you're caught just deny the he** out of it! If it relates to wrongdoing against other people just trash them and try to make THEM the perps and you the poor innocent crucified vic and double down on attacking them and calling them fake/phony. It is working beautifully in the US on many levels, especially politics. You get elected no matter how sleazy you are or what creepy things you did...some criminal. Folks don't give a rat's a** about character these days. Just give 'em that good old fashioned sweet talking lies and you own them. So the basketball players followed suit. There are shoplifters in the US all the time. Ask any store owner. I don't know if people from other countries are thieves too. I'll ask. Maybe they're worse. Who knows? Who cares? Right?