Silver: NBA 'fact finder' in Sefolosha incident
NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Friday the league has been in contact with lawyers for Atlanta Hawks forward Thabo Sefolosha and with the New York City Police Department to “try to understand exactly what happened” between Sefolosha and police during the player’s arrest on April 8.
Sefolosha suffered a broken right fibula and ligament damage at the scene of his arrest and said earlier this week the injuries were inflicted by police.
The commissioner said the NBA is monitoring the developments and trying to ascertain what exactly happened during Sefolosha’s arrest.
Silver added that he isn’t “prejudging” anything about the incident.
“I see our role here as a fact finder,” Silver said.
Sefolosha had surgery on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, the team announced. He will miss the entirety of the playoffs.
“It’s a huge loss for the league to not have him on the floor. Obviously, a huge loss to the Atlanta Hawks to not have a player of his skill going to the playoffs,” Silver said.
Silver added that, as a friend of Sefolosha’s, he felt “incredibly empathetic” toward the player.
“He’s a player in this league, and we want to help him and assist him in any way we can. And our way of assisting him is to get the fullest understanding we can from what happened that night,” the commissioner said.
Sefolosha was arrested at the corner of 10th Avenue and West 17th Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea district. The police report filed by officer Johnpaul Giacona of the 10th Precinct stated that Sefolosha was interfering with the establishment of a crime scene in front of 1Oak Club, where Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland was stabbed in a separate incident.
But a pair of videos published on TMZ late last week challenge several specifics from the report.
One video, shot by a witness, appears to show an officer pulling out his baton as a group of officers wrestled Sefolosha to the ground. In addition, the arrests of Sefolosha and Hawks center Pero Antic appear to be more than 100 feet from the site of Copeland’s stabbing.
The complaint submitted by Sefolosha claims he was injured by police at the scene.
“I don’t think — to the extent the police, based on what we all saw in that video, may have broken his leg, doesn’t speak to justification, and I think that’s the ultimate issue,” Silver said. “I don’t think it’s the league’s role to play sort of an aggressive role here. We have, on behalf of our employee, a desire to understand precisely what went on here and to learn from it frankly, in terms of other players who might be in situations with law enforcement.”
ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz contributed to this report.
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