Thabo Sefolosha sues five NYPD arresting officers, New York City

Atlanta Hawks swingman Thabo Sefolosha, as expected, is filing suit against the New York City Police Department, and the city.

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The NBA veteran was arrested a year ago following an altercation outside an NYC nightclub. In the wee hours, former Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland was stabbed in an unrelated incident. Sefolosha and former teammate Pero Antic, who were not out with Copeland that night, were then detained while milling amongst the crowd curious to see what had happened to Copeland.

In the ensuing melee, an exchange between Sefolosha and the officers resulted in a broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments for Thabo. Refusing a plea deal in the wake of his arrest, Sefolosha relied on common sense and some brief cell phone camera videos to beat the charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Now, in concert with Antic (who filed suit earlier this year), Sefolosha is firing back. From ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz:

Sefolosha’s suit includes charges of false arrest, excessive force, malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. Sefolosha’s notice of claim, filed last year, sets $50 million as the ceiling he can be compensated for both material and punitive damages.

[…]

Sefolosha ultimately decided to proceed with a suit that alleges his reputation and image have been damaged by the incident, and that his value as a professional basketball career has been adversely affected.

The suit also alleges that the incident was “a racial matter,” making specific reference to Sefolosha’s African descent and the hoodie he was wearing on the night of the arrest.

Thabo Sefolosha missed the rest of the 2014-15 regular season and the entire postseason as a result of his injuries. Considering that Hawk starting small forward DeMarre Carroll was hobbled during last year’s playoff pairing with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sefolosha’s presence would certainly have counted.

From a purely basketball standpoint, Sefolosha is incredibly lucky.

He’s returned to his role as Atlanta’s jack of all trades off the bench without nary a hitch, boasting fantastic on/off court numbers while adding 6.6 points per game in 23 minutes a contest. His defense (on what has grown to become the league’s second-best defensive squad) remains superb, while any incremental drop off in comparison to last year can be blamed on the typical fallback we see in a veteran turning 30 to 31 years of age.

For him to suffer that pair of non-basketball injuries and bounce back, though, is remarkable. A broken fibula is not a typical NBA setback, and it can end a career. To say little of the torn ankle ligaments.

Some months ago Sefolosha – needlessly sitting in the jail cell, in rehab, and then in the courtroom that eventually exonerated him – would have probably preferred to have torn an ACL the night before, rather than working through two career-altering and significant injuries.

Sefolosha is in the second season of a three-year, $12 million deal. He will be a coveted free agent in the summer of 2017 at the age of 33, but teams should be rightfully wary of how the two injuries sustained in the altercation with the NYPD will limit him moving forward. Without even delving into the racial implications, contextualized solely through the light of Thabo Sefolosha working as an NBA veteran, this appears to be a completely legitimate course of action.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops