Hawks teammates support Thabo Sefolosha after incident with police
The Atlanta Hawks are coming together in support of Thabo Sefolosha after he sustained an injury in an incident with police outside of a New York nightclub last week after Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland was stabbed outside the same nightclub.
The Hawks forward accused the police of causing the injuries, a broken fibula and ligament damage, that ended his season, while a police report accuses Sefolosha of resisting arrest. TMZ released videos of the arrest late last week.
Despite the broader societal themes at play in this incident, the team stressed that its main concern is Sefolosha's health and safety, according to ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz.
"We're a family at the end of the day, and that's what we want to display to him," said center Al Horford.
Guard Kyle Korver, vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN that the union's executive board is eager to let the justice system do its work.
"I'll just say that, at the end of the day, justice is going to happen and the full story will be told," said Korver. "This is a conversation that's happening in a lot of places. It's a hot topic. It's a really hard situation."
The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau has reportedly contacted Sefolosha's lawyer to conduct an interview about the incident.