Utah Jazz veteran Thabo Sefolosha recently recounted his horrendous experience a few years ago in New York when the 6-foot-7 swingman had an altercation with the NYPD, which ultimately resulted in a night spent behind bars and an awful injury.
Back in the 2014-15 season, Sefolosha was part of the Atlanta Hawks. The team was in New York to face the Brooklyn Nets the following evening when Sefolosha and teammate Pero Antic decided to hit up a popular night spot in Manhattan called 1 Oak.
Sefolosha was allegedly involved in a heated argument with an NYPD officer who was responding to a stabbing incident at the night club. While the former All-Defensive team member had no involvement in the violence whatsoever, he somehow got into a physical altercation with the officers that resulted in a broken leg that would eventually require surgery and months of recovery.
Speaking to Tony Jones of The Athletic, Sefolosha explained how he felt that the incident was nothing more than a show of force that went way over the top:
“It all could have been avoided very easily,” Thabo Sefolosha said. “It was basically a frustrated officer trying to prove a point. He wanted to prove he was the one in power. It was a total abuse of power, in my opinion. And it was very, very uncalled for.”
To this day, Sefolosha still feels aggrieved about how things went down that fateful evening and how in his mind, he was the victim of a power tripping bunch of police officers:
“It was total B.S.,” Thabo Sefolosha said. “They were in the wrong. They violated my rights as a citizen and they violated my rights as a pedestrian. I had to go through a surgery and a rehab because of that. There was no way I was taking a deal. I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Unfortunately, we've all heard this type of story before. However, what makes this particular incident stand out is the fact that it happened to an NBA star. As proven by Sefolosha's horrible experience, no one is exempt from wrongful police officers who elect to abuse their position.
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