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‘Time To Riot Everywhere’: Tennis Legend Martina Navratilova Following George Floyd’s Death

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Katie Jerkovich Entertainment Reporter
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Tennis legend Martina Navratilova said it was “time to riot everywhere” in response to the death of George Floyd.

“Time to riot everywhere, ” the 63-year-old former professional tennis player tweeted to her hundreds of thousands of followers, in a since-deleted post, following the death of Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died in police custody. The comments were noted by The Hill in a piece published Thursday.(RELATED: Video Surfaces Of Police Officer With Knee On Man’s Throat, Man Later Died)

Not long after her tweet, people questioned the tennis star about her comments and if she would really be the one out there rioting. (RELATED: Minneapolis Police Protesters Seen Looting TVs, Clothes From Target)

Navratilova then hit back saying that her call for riots everywhere wasn’t a call “to any violence whatsoever.” (SLIDESHOW: Anna Kournikova: The Best To Ever Play The Game)

“To all those who have an issue with me calling for riots everywhere- please look up the many definitions of riot,” Martina tweeted. “This is not a call to any violence whatsoever- for example this a definition of riot ‘an unbridled outbreak, as of emotions, passions, etc.'”

“So simmer down!!!” she added, before she followed up her tweet a short time later with a post that included a quote attributed to from Martin Luther King, Jr. that read, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

“As I was saying…But let me rephrase so the right wingers don’t have another fake fit-It’s time to protest everywhere,” the Czechoslovak-born American tweeted.

Navratilova became a U.S. citizen in 1981 and retired from her legendary tennis career in 2006 after winning 18 Grand Slam titles.