THABO AND PERO arrested for obstruction of justice

[Rip2137]

I love how you keep getting refuted with very reasonable responses and just go to the same nonsense. There have been more in incidents at the white house in the last year than incidents at the club yet you are still shouting "two people got stabbed so see! It's never safe." So anywhere a crime happens, even if its a one in a million occurance WHICH THIS ONE LITERALLY IS, means its unsafe and its stupid for people to be there.

I think that's the point you are stubbornly ignoring. Jesus dude, you are ignoring crime statistics, pictures that refute your point, my first hand account that refutes your point...and you are doing it by basically putting your fingers in your ears and shouting " Not listening!!!!!! I'm right I'm right!"

[PandaKidd]

I'm not , its pointless to argue, we will never agree.

I really don't care anymore

[taikibansei]

Race baiting. See wanring.

[PandaKidd]

^^^ see. I refuse to argue with irrational idiots.


Now its a race thing even though pero is from Macedonia lololol

[taikibansei]

Now its a race thing even though pero is from Macedonia lololol

Which guy got his leg broken again? Note that both were more than 100 feet from the stabbing--which according to multiple accounts, they had NOTHING to do with. Still haven't seen any evidence that Thabo was attacking people either--the video evidence released so far certainly suggests otherwise.

We'll see what happens in court. Still, while I've been coming to this page looking for updates on the situation, I must say I'm surprised at the victim-blaming going on here--especially given that neither Thabo nor Pero have any history of doing bad things.

[PandaKidd]

Victim blaming?

Gtfo , my opinion is that late night activity increases your odds of late night trouble.

Almost all crime statistics back that up.

Charles Barkley said the same thing, is he racist too?

You don't have any idea what happened that night, you saw 1 TMZ clip and passed judgement and claimed racism.

Troll.

[Rip2137]

Oh stop it. It's clearly documented that police use force at a significantly higher rate against minorities. THIS might not be the case, but NY, home of the stop and frisk policies of brown people, have policies that basically say treat minorities as criminals.

No, we A: Don't know if Thabo should have been getting arrested in the first place(he very well might have needed to be) and we B: DEFINITELY don't know if it was racially motivated and never will. But to pretend there is no reason to consider it is silly.

But again...crime statistics for upscale clubs late at night is lower than a shopping mall in the day time. You denying it does t make it so. Amd honestly, if you don't want to continue the discussion, there is the option to not reply. People in this thread want to discuss what happened. There are hundreds of threads not discussing this.

[atlantabbq99]

Thabo is a minority so everything he says about the event must be a lie and his fault......

[Rip2137]

A source close to Sefolosha, who did not witness the incident but has spoken to several people who did, told SI.com a divergent view of what happened from the official police account.

According to the criminal complaint against Sefolosha, an officer arrested the Hawks player and teammate Pero Antic after they refused six times to comply with his request to disperse from the crime scene. According to the complaint, an officer “observed the defendant Thabo Sefolosha run in an aggressive manner towards the direction” of another officer.

But according to the source, it was the officer who was the initial aggressor. The source said that while officers were dispersing dozens of people near the scene, one officer focused on Sefolosha, “and then he continues to track him down the block like a D-back tracking a receiver.”

At the time, the source said, Sefolosha and Antic were walking down the block to get into a car that would take them back to their team hotel. The source said Sefolosha did not run toward the cop as the complaint said. Rather, the source said “Sefolosha turns to him and asked in substance what the officer’s problem was with him.’” At this point, the source said, Sefolosha and the officer got into an argument, which led to Sefolosha’s arrest for obstruction of a governmental function, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The arrest took place at the corner of 10th Avenue, more than 120 feet away from the scene of the stabbing at 1OAK night club.

Antic was also arrested and charged with obstructing a governmental function, disorderly conduct, and harassment. According to an NYPD spokesperson, he was initially charged with menacing “for physically grabbing a police officer,” but these charges do not appear in the criminal complaint against him. The source said that rather than grabbing the officer, Antic “tapped the officer on the shoulder.”

[Rip2137]

This source is probably just letting us know what Thabos version of the story is honestly.

[atlantabbq99]

The cop was high

[Jamaaliver]

25 Activities Black People Should Avoid Around Cops

The cop was high

Thabo is a minority so everything he says about the event must be a lie and his fault......

^^^ see. I refuse to argue with irrational idiots.

I'm suddenly okay with UGA shutting this particular thread down.

[PandaKidd]

TBH I'm just of the opinion that all facts should come out before we blame cops or NBA players.

And I am of the position that nothing good happens after 12am.

PERIOD.

if that makes me crazy so be it

[dms269]

I'm suddenly okay with UGA shutting this particular thread down.

You got it dude.


This thread has went away from the original purpose, which was talking about Thabo and Pero. If you want to discuss the statistics and current race/police relations I am pretty sure there is a thread on the Current Affairs Board.

[dms269]

I am reopening this thread, however it MUST stay on topic about Thabo and Pero. If you want to talk about minorities and police, take it to the current events or general nba board. I am pretty sure this story has been beaten to death, but just in case yall want to keep going on, keep it civil.

[theatlfan]

I should probably just start a new topic on this, but how many legitimately think Thabo is back in a Hawks' uni next season? I can't think that Thabo will recover from a broken fibula and be 100%. Considering his age, role, and pre-injury athletic ability, I have to think that losing a step would probably hurt him more than other NBA players. I mean, his primary job is to stay in front of the opposition's #1 which seems like there is a very small margin of error and it's not like he was an elite athlete before the injury.

I'm assuming that, WCS, the standard contract would have some language in it which would allow us to terminate his contract due to being arrested by the police. I know that other professional athletes have clauses in their contract for injuries due to lesser behaviors. For instance, Ron Gant's injury on a 4-wheeler several years ago and there's also some rumor that a player's injury that was publicly said to have happened in the shower actually happened while he was doing something else. The real question is whether we'd a) exercise the clause this off-season for cap room or b) ship him off to another team that may.

[Jamaaliver]

...how many legitimately think Thabo is back in a Hawks' uni next season? I can't think that Thabo will recover from a broken fibula and be 100%.

I think there's a strong chance. Apparently, Thabo was one of our best players using advanced statistics. There's a good chance DMC leaves, which makes it even more imperative to keep a veteran stopper around off the bench.

Also, we seem to be a team right now that holds on to players to the very ends of their careers, sometimes out of necessity. (Brand) Sometimes out of frugality. (Pero)

I do share your concern regarding his comeback and rehab. This is the 3rd major injury for him in the last 18 months. His body clearly is taking a beating.

But we signed a 3 yr deal with us. Is one of those a team option? Do we have recourse to let him go or waive should we choose?

[Rip2137]

If we cut him using that clause we will lose this teams respect and every player in the NBA's respect...something I think we have built up over the past two seasons.

The calf injury, although a slow healing process isn't a severe injury...just a annoying one. THIS is a big injury though, depending on the severity of the fracture. I am confident he will be okay until given reason to believe otherwise.

But he was one of our best players, best defensive player statistically by quite a margin, and 6th best in the NBA at the SF statistically. I don't think we can afford to let him go.

[MaceCase]

I should probably just start a new topic on this, but how many legitimately think Thabo is back in a Hawks' uni next season? I can't think that Thabo will recover from a broken fibula and be 100%. Considering his age, role, and pre-injury athletic ability, I have to think that losing a step would probably hurt him more than other NBA players. I mean, his primary job is to stay in front of the opposition's #1 which seems like there is a very small margin of error and it's not like he was an elite athlete before the injury.

I'm assuming that, WCS, the standard contract would have some language in it which would allow us to terminate his contract due to being arrested by the police. I know that other professional athletes have clauses in their contract for injuries due to lesser behaviors. For instance, Ron Gant's injury on a 4-wheeler several years ago and there's also some rumor that a player's injury that was publicly said to have happened in the shower actually happened while he was doing something else. The real question is whether we'd a) exercise the clause this off-season for cap room or b) ship him off to another team that may.

The Hawks already put themselves in just a tad bit of a bind by publicly supporting both Thabo and Pero by claiming with "conviction", as were Koonin's exact words, that they are innocent of the charges. Would be odd to then turn around and terminate Thabo's contract based on a misdemeanor charge of all things that they believed to be bogus to begin with. The union would have a field day on that alone.

As Rip stated, this idea would sure go a long way towards destroying more goodwill for a team that hasn't exactly banked much capital in it to begin with. Lost in the "person x is solely to blame for everything" debate is the fact that the Hawks organization, the people who matter most, have been behind both Thabo and Pero about 100%. They haven't played the "wait and see" or the "we'll allow this to be worked out in court" cards, they've played the "we stand by our guys and if not for pending legal action would drop a few choice words on the matter" card. That is a hard 180 to go from.

[theatlfan]

...how many legitimately think Thabo is back in a Hawks' uni next season? I can't think that Thabo will recover from a broken fibula and be 100%.

I think there's a strong chance. Apparently, Thabo was one of our best players using advanced statistics. There's a good chance DMC leaves, which makes it even more imperative to keep a veteran stopper around off the bench.

Also, we seem to be a team right now that holds on to players to the very ends of their careers, sometimes out of necessity. (Brand) Sometimes out of frugality. (Pero)

I do share your concern regarding his comeback and rehab. This is the 3rd major injury for him in the last 18 months. His body clearly is taking a beating.

But we signed a 3 yr deal with us. Is one of those a team option? Do we have recourse to let him go or waive should we choose?

As others have alluded to, most contracts of professional athletes have outs if the athlete incurs an injury by engaging in risky behavior. I know you're an old school ATL guy which is one of the reasons I brought up the Ron Gant situation earlier. The ability to get out of Thabo's contract would work within the same context.

Not sure I agree with the end of the career comment though. Sure, we don't mind getting guys at the end of their peak years, but I also think we're far from having a strong enough sample to know if we're a team that isn't willing to cut bait once a player shows strong signs of not being worth the contract he is commanding. It'd be one thing if we were paying Brand or Antic $5+M, but I'm not sure that they make $3.5M combined. I have no problem with a guy's age as long as his production matches his salary.

If we cut him using that clause we will lose this teams respect and every player in the NBA's respect...something I think we have built up over the past two seasons.

The calf injury, although a slow healing process isn't a severe injury...just a annoying one. THIS is a big injury though, depending on the severity of the fracture. I am confident he will be okay until given reason to believe otherwise.

But he was one of our best players, best defensive player statistically by quite a margin, and 6th best in the NBA at the SF statistically. I don't think we can afford to let him go.

Have to call BS on the "player's respect" comment. Athletes aren't idiots - they know the score. This isn't a situation where we're hanging the guy our to dry when he was completely without any fault. Every professional athlete knows that if you suffer a career threatening injury by being in a situation you could have easily avoided then you risk having your contract voided. It isn't on us that Thabo was obviously trying to elude the police which resulted in a series of events that caused the injury. Now yes, the police egregiously (and probably criminally) overreacted - there is no questioning that - but why should we be on the hook for ~$8M because of mistakes made by others, including Thabo? If anything, I'd say that, assuming Thabo can't come back to nearly 100%, we'd garner the respect of more players by cutting Thabo and proving that we not going to sacrifice years off the ever so short careers of AS like Korver, Horford, Teague, and Millsap because we're more interested in playing politics than, you know, winning basketball games.

Now, obviously, if Thabo can recover to be 100% - or even just enough to be a solid average backup SF - then I think we can all agree that there would be no reason to look at voiding his contract. The problem with ankle injuries is that recovery can be a b!tch since it's a weight bearing area and if you rehab too quickly then you basically have to start the entire rehab back over from square 1. Maybe I'm just a little more touchy about the injury than I should be since I'm still recovering from an ugly broken ankle that will leave me with a limp in my gait for the rest of my life. I know that Thabo's injury wasn't as severe as mine (he wouldn't have been able to walk out of the police station at their perp walk if it was) but I saw others with lesser lower leg injuries that just couldn't seem to get out of rehab either.

The Hawks already put themselves in just a tad bit of a bind by publicly supporting both Thabo and Pero by claiming with "conviction", as were Koonin's exact words, that they are innocent of the charges. Would be odd to then turn around and terminate Thabo's contract based on a misdemeanor charge of all things that they believed to be bogus to begin with. The union would have a field day on that alone.

As Rip stated, this idea would sure go a long way towards destroying more goodwill for a team that hasn't exactly banked much capital in it to begin with. Lost in the "person x is solely to blame for everything" debate is the fact that the Hawks organization, the people who matter most, have been behind both Thabo and Pero about 100%. They haven't played the "wait and see" or the "we'll allow this to be worked out in court" cards, they've played the "we stand by our guys and if not for pending legal action would drop a few choice words on the matter" card. That is a hard 180 to go from.

Don't think I'd read too much into Koonin's words. I'm sure that, if it came to pass that Pero went elsewhere in FA and we realized that Thabo simply wasn't going to make it back from his injury, that Koonin would still support Thabo and Pero since it seems like Koonin is a decent human being and the video of Thabo's beat down was particularly appalling. Still, like when a GM backs a coach toward the end of the season then decides to fire him just a few weeks later, the two decisions are completely separate from each other and there is no conflict between showing support today and not having that interfere with the hard decision you have to make later. We should also note that, in this instance, Koonin wouldn't even be making the decision to terminate Thabo's contract so the analogy is even stronger than the situation here.

Also don't look too much into the weight of the charges. It doesn't matter if it was a misdemeanor, a felony, a traffic ticket or even if he was just detained without charges, the only thing pertinent is that he was injured by being in a situation that the organization would have a reasonable expectation that Thabo should have avoided. The simple fact here is that Thabo was more concerned about himself and not being detained than he was about the organization and ensuring that he was 100% for those who were paying him. As I said above, this doesn't mean he deserved what happened to him (he didn't), but it does beg the question I also posed above: why are we on the hook to get nothing from more $$ than the average American makes in his lifetime for the mistakes of others?

Again, if Thabo's injury isn't too severe and he can come back to being a productive NBA regular, then the entire conversation is moot. As long as he recovers, I don't care how he got hurt and I'd guess that neither would the Hawks' FO (well, outside of perhaps going after the City of NY for wages for lost productivity and medical expenses the club incurs). We all know that this is the preferred outcome from everyone's perspective - perhaps most specifically the NYPD because of potential lawsuits.