The Atlanta Hawks lost guard Thabo Sefolosha for the season with a fractured fibula in his right leg, an injury he sustained during an incident outside a New York City nightclub early Wednesday morning. This incident also was connected with the stabbing of Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland and a female companion. Sefolosha and Hawks teammate, big man Pero Antic, were arrested for alleged obstruction of a crime scene. A few recent videos posted on TMZ shows several officers taking down Sefolosha.
As you can imagine, the players’ union isn’t thrilled about it and announced Friday that they’re conducting their own investigation into the New York Police Department’s procedures in reference to the arrest of Sefolosha.
Following from ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz.
“The players’ union is concerned about the circumstances of Thabo Sefolosha and Pero Antic’s arrest and is doing its own investigation of the situation,” NBPA spokeswoman Tara Greco said. “The union was fully engaged in supporting all three players in court and in the precinct this week, and will continue to stay engaged as each situation evolves.”
Both Sefolosha and Antic have said that they will fight the charges brought against them, saying they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and Copeland has also issued an apology of his own. If you watch the 2 videos, you can even hear witnesses at the scene saying they didn’t do anything and they were just trying to clear the scene. The Hawks organization has so far supported both players, as expected, because it appears they did nothing wrong. This is going to be an interesting situation to keep tabs on going forward, and if the NBPA gets involved, that could add another dynamic to it, especially if the union finds any damning information about the NYPD.
Time to put the ‘Players Choice Awards’ on hold and handle more important issues.
