Outside of soccer (futbol), basketball is the second most globally popular sport on Earth. At the height of the basketball world is the NBA. Thabo Sefolosha is player for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. Last spring while he was visiting an NYC night club he had a run in with the police which left him with a broken leg, severe ligament damage and an arrest. The video below show the incident:
Notice at 20 seconds in, after he is already on the ground with 3 officers on top of him, a 4th officer comes up from behind and swats him in the leg with a baton and then stomps down on the back of his leg. This is what broke his leg. The police offered him a plea deal, 6 months probation, some community service and the charges will go away. No jail time needed. Mr. Sefolosha declined. Facing a potential felony conviction going into a new basketball season, he took this to court. The jury found Thablo Sefolosha innocent of any wrong doing. In the light of an embarrassing incident involving tennis star James Blake recently, the two have paired up publicly. Thabo Sefoloshia intends to sue the NYPD for 15 million dollars. This is not outlandish by any means either. The average salary in the NBA is 5.5 million dollars, the highest paid players in professional basketball make over 20 million dollars per year. Sefoloshia may not be an elite player, but he is an above average player in the league. He is literally paid for his body (athletic ability) and the police did serious harm to his body. A broken leg and decreased athletic performance as a result could cost an NBA star tens of millions of dollars over the longevity of their career.
Recently Thabo Sofolosha sat down with Hannah Storm of ESPN. Please watch the video: HERE <– (Hyperlink Video). What you might not know about Mr. Sefoloshia is that he is one of the more popular players in the league amoungst other players. He has always had a good relationship with the media and has a reputation for being well spoken. But at 2am at night, outside of a night club all the police see is a 6’7” 220 black male and register this in their brains as a threat. So they acted out of fear and removed the threat without thought or reason. As you can see it is likely that he will win the case with much public support. However it is not the police who are being punished here, that is the people of NYC. See, any money the department is forced to pay comes directly out of tax revenue. The police force are funded through taxpayer dollars. The citizens of NYC are the real ones losing out in this whole ordeal.
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