NYPD Injury Caused Atlanta Hawks' Thabo Sefolosha to Miss Playoffs: Claim

Little coverage by sports press.

via TMZ

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Atlanta Hawks out of the NBA playoffs, but the absence of one player, Swiss national Thabo Sefolosha, wasn't mentioned during the game or in most of the write ups. The shooting guard was ruled out for the season in April after fracturing his fibula during an encounter with New York City police outside a nightclub. Police accused Sefolosha of preventing them from establishing a crime scene after another basketball player, Chris Copeland, was stabbed. Sefolosha and another Hawks' player, Pero Antic were charged with obstruction of justice.

Video obtained by TMZ Sports shows up to six officers pulling Sefolosha in different directions and one of them hitting him with a night stick. Sefolosha blamed police for the injury, and is contesting the charges. The Nation has a long piece on why the sports media ignored the Sefolosha story, especially given the role he'd play in possibly preventing a playoff sweep by the Cavaliers, but it's short on answers. No one cares about the Hawks? Sefolosha's not a big enough name? Neither white nor black sports columnists want to take the risk of writing about a polarizing issue? A vice president at ESPN told The Nation the "story… deserves greater illumination, which means information, not mere discussion." Perish the thought that ESPN runs mere discussions.

Watch one of the videos of the incident, via TMZ Sports, below:

Comments

[R C Dean]

A vice president at ESPN told The Nation the "story? deserves greater illumination, which means information, not mere discussion."

So, howsabout you take some of your many, many staffers and send them out to get that information, you putz.

[Invisible Finger]

ESPN has many many staffers but no talent. ESPN sucks authoritarian cock. Thus their endless "inflate-gate" bullshit. (Or so I'm told, I don't watch Sports Center or any of their other shit. I won't even watch baseball on ESPN anymore what with their retarded strike zone.)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Video obtained by TMZ Sports shows up to six officers pulling Sefolosha in different directions and one of them hitting him with a night stick.

"Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes."

[tarran]

What a great movie!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

A classic.

[Dark Lord of the Cis]

The other Hawks player BTW, was Pero Antic. Known to Hawks fans by his nickname White Josh Smith.

[Episiarch]

A vice president at ESPN told The Nation the "story? deserves greater illumination, which means information, not mere discussion."

Considering that if they aren't playing footage of an actual sport or some weird kind of sports documentary, all they have is discussion, this statement is laughable.

Honestly, the reason this story has probably been ignored is that the guy can't be put into any of the narratives the media wants. They guy is (part) black, but he's Swiss, and he's a rich sports star. So that doesn't fit the #blacklivesmatter narrative (because that's really about poor American blacks, which is absurd, but there it is). There's potential police brutality, but it's not the flashy kind (mag dumps and shooting through windshields), and the media still likes to suck cop dick much of the time anyway.

Basically, I'd say that your average shitty reporter or news outlet works on an informal "will this incident cause a possible riot? No? Pass." standard.

[Invisible Finger]

I think the standard is "If it makes us look even less informed than the average idiot watching, we're not going to cover it."

[Paul.]

If it wasn't for "mere discussion" ESPN could be reduced to a rolling ticker of final game scores.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Just remember that NYPD was supposed to be engaging in a work slowdown. Any follow up on that?

[Paul.]

Thanks for the reminder. One wonders how much crime dropped during the slowdown...

[Kaptious Kristen]

There were some data in the first week or so, but haven't heard anything since. Not even sure they're still doing it (though one would hope it would be a permanent thing)

[Comrade F. Stupidity, Jr.]

HEY YOU TWO WE'RE TALKING HOOPS OVER HERE

[Comrade F. Stupidity, Jr.]

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Atlanta Hawks out of the NBA playoffs, but the absence of one player, Swiss national Thabo Sefolosha, wasn't mentioned during the game or in most of the write ups.

I've been half-watching the playoffs since the Spurs were knocked out, and I can tell you that Sefolosha's absence was mentioned at least once during the Cavs series.

If his absence wasn't given much mention, it's because his presence in the series might have maybe led to the Hawks winning game three. Maybe. They lost by a million last night so I don't think he would have had an impact in that one.

[Comrade F. Stupidity, Jr.]

Since Sefolosha is a white western-European guy

He's not white.

[Comrade F. Stupidity, Jr.]

There's a poorly-placed reply.

[Deep Lurker]

According to The Narrative, all police brutality and abuse is due to raaaaacism. Since Sefolosha is a white western-European guy, the actions of the police here can't be racist, and therefore can't be examples of police brutality or abuse. Instead they're just a matter of the police acting properly and in accordance with procedure.

[a better weapon]

I had no idea Thabo Sefolosha was Swiss.

The footage didn't really show much to me. Why they needed 7 or 8 apes to pull him all over the place is ridiculous, but I didn't see a 'beating with a night stick.' The car was in the way, anyone else see where it occurred?

I'd imagine a night stick to the shin would be season ending for him though. That or a stomp while he was on the ground.

Also, the crime scene looked pretty fucking established to me. They had the white dude in cuffs on the curb between the vehicles and a dozen cops around him. He was just standing next to his apprehended friend. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that he told his buddy to stay quiet and the goons went wild.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I think I head a bystander (or the arrestee?) curse "les flics."