shirtless bieber
Justin Bieber entering through Wladyslaw Reymont Airport in Lodz Reuters

Justin Bieber can't seem to avoid bad publicity. A new rumour about him getting 'smacked' by NBA player Blake Griffin, who plays for LA Clippers, began circulating online on Monday.

Even as reports claimed the rumours were false a tweet by LA Laker's Chris Kaman pointed otherwise.

Several popular sports blogs reported on Monday that Griffin "smacked the sh*t" out of Bieber after the singer refused to put on a shirt inside a West Hollywood Starbucks outlet, Gossip Cop reported.

The Starbucks barista is quoted as saying (via Empire Sports):

"He came in with no shirt on and his pants hanging down and underwear showing and tried to order a caramel apple machiatto.", said Joey Goldsmith, the Starbucks barista, "I just told him he would have to put a shirt on if he wanted to order."

Bieber reportedly started using cuss words at the barista and threatened to have his bodyguard, "kick his ass".

Griffin, who was sitting at a table nearby, decided to intervene and settle things down but Bieber's aggressive behaviour resulted in him getting smacked and knocked down to the floor by Griffin.

"I saw Justin stumble out of the door looking like he was crying," added the barista.

Gossip Cop subsequently reported, after checking with a source close to Bieber, that the story was false. As per the 'source', the rumour was "made up", as Justin had "not returned to Los Angeles for weeks".

But the following tweet by LA Laker's player Chris Kaman points towards the report being true after all, at least to an extent.

Kaman, who played with Griffin for one season with the Clippers, claims that he saw the basketball player roughing up Bieber, though not exactly in the same way as reported earlier: