DJ Horne apologizes for double-middle fingers toward official vs. Wake Forest

NC State guard DJ Horne has apologized for Tuesday night’s double-middle fingers toward an official. His apology came before the ACC issued a public reprimand for the gesture, which came as the Wolfpack defeated Wake Forest 83-76.

“My sincere apologies for what happened at the end of the game,” Horne wrote on X. “I got caught up in the heat of the moment and made a disrespectful gesture that I should have never done. That’s not who I am!”

The league office issued the reprimand after an official review of the game, noting the reprimand is “based on Horne’s involvement in an unsportsmanlike and inappropriate gesture at the end of the game.”

The ACC offered no further comment on the matter.

During a stoppage with 2.2 seconds left and the Wolfpack leading the Demon Deacons, 81-76, after trailing for most of the night, Horne flipped up both middle fingers toward someone. While it wasn’t toward the ACC Network cameras, they caught his double bird on the broadcast.

Shortly before, the game had peaked in intensity when a confrontation between both teams on the court after an and-1 play resulted in some late game technicals and ejections.

NC State held on to win, 83-76. DJ Horne starred for the home team, pouring in a team-high 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting. He also added three rebounds, and a pair of assists and steals. Horne was also instrumental in NC State coming back late in the game to win. With the win, the Wolfpack move to 5-1 in the ACC and 13-4 on the season so far.

But the abiding memory of the game might be his double bird caught on camera. Mostly harmless, but certainly not one to be lived down any time soon.

Horne started his college career at Illinois State before transferring to Arizona State ahead of the 2021-22 season. He spent two years with the Sun Devils and averaged 12.5 points per game in both seasons, and he entered the transfer portal again as a graduate transfer. That led him to NC State, where he’s putting up similar numbers to his last year with Illinois State.

Through 17 games in 2023-24, including 16 starts, Horne is averaging 15.1 points along with 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game as part of an impressive season. Against Wake Forest, he had 21 points to help NC State improve to 13-4 on the season — even after Kevin Keatts got ejected from the game.

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp and Andrew Graham contributed to this report.