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NEW YORK — The Philadelphia 76ers have suspended embattled rookie center Jahlil Okafor for two games in the wake of multiple off-court incidents, including the emergence of a second videotaped fight outside a club in Boston one night last week.
Okafor was reportedly being taunted by fans in Boston and responded by fighting, with TMZ catching both incidents on video. In the latest video, Okafor is seen throwing punches at a heckler and a melee ensues in the street. A man gets knocked to the ground, leaving him with cuts on his face, although it’s unclear who knocked him down. The second video did not become public until Wednesday, hours after the Sixers beat the Lakers for their first win of the season and hours before they were to meet the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. In another incident in October, a man reportedly pulled a gun on Okafor at a club in Philadelphia. Three weeks ago, Okafor was also reportedly stopped for driving 108-mph over the Ben Franklin Bridge.
“Jahlil is a very important part of our organization and our future. While we are disappointed with his recent actions, we have faith in him as a valued member of the Sixers,” the 76ers statement reads. “We will provide the necessary resources to support him on his journey and will do our part to help him succeed both on and off the court.”
Instead of talking about the win over the Lakers, or the upcoming game against the Knicks, Sixers coach Brett Brown was left to speak to a media horde in a Madison Square Garden hallway for approximately 10 minutes about the 6-foot-11, 275-pound Okafor, the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft out of Duke. He did not get a question about something other than Okafor until the very end of his address. GM Sam Hinkie was not made available.
“The club felt like this was the thing that we could do two-fold, that we could show him tough love, that we understand that he’s ours and we have to help him, and help him we will,” Brown said.
Asked if additional punishment was forthcoming from the NBA, Brown said, “We’re not sure right now. I think that the statement reflects what we know at this stage. We’re doing this in partnership with the NBA and with Jahlil and with his family and his representatives. It’s a collaborative effort, it needs to be, it’s serious and the parties that are involved are the parties that should be involved. Nobody is taking this anything but extremely serious.”
Meantime, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, in his first public comments about Okafor, said the Sixers needed to provide him with security and defended Okafor as a “good kid.”
“Jah is one of the great kids ever. Ever. Ever. Ever,” Coach K told reporters after Duke beat Indiana, 94-74, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. “You get into some situations. He needs to move on. They also need to have security. When we are with the US team, we have security for everybody because all those kids are targets. You’ve just got to be smart about that.
“He was not. He apologized. He’s being punished. Look, anybody who pictures that kid as some bad kid, you’ve got to be kidding me. He’s one of the most loving, good kids that has ever happened on this earth. But he did a couple of stupid things, Knock him. Suspend him. Let’s move on. But don’t characterize him as that. He is not that. That kid is a special, special human being and he’s a pretty damn good basketball player.”
Brown spoke to Okafor after the Nov. 27 game in Houston after the first TMZ video emerged, but the coach said he was “surprised” to learn of the second videotaped fight and that “this news that came out Wednesday wasn’t a part of” their initial conversation.
“The further details surprised me,” Brown said. “He told us that he was in a situation that he regretted. As far as the play-by-play of what happened, he did not go into that. Today we learned more. When I spent time with Jahlil in his room today, he is ashamed, he is embarrassed and this has caught him off guard.
“I’m a parent of a 19-year-old, too, and you walk that line, especially in my role, of showing tough love and helping him. And he made a mistake. And nobody’s denying it, nobody’s hiding from it, we own it.”
Pressed on whether Okafor expressed sufficient remorse after the previous incidents became public, Brown said he thought it was actually a “good thing” that all of this was coming out now.
“If it’s all going to come out and it’s going to hit him hard and because of the repetitive instances that are now being revealed that it’s that dramatic, then I think this is a good thing,” Brown said. “I think that if lessons are to be learned and this 19-year-old young man has to learn the responsibility of wearing a 76er uniform and carrying an NBA logo and it has to be done in the magnitude, in the national media spotlight as it has been delivered to make our point, then I say that’s not a bad thing.
“Let’s make our point. There is hard luck. There are mistakes that have been made, he does own it, and nobody’s proud of this right now. And so we will support him, he’s ours and we will move on.”
Asked if he felt betrayed by Okafor’s actions, Brown said he did not and offered some insight into what he believes is the bigger picture surrounding Okafor.
“I don’t feel betrayed,” he said. “I feel like I’m looking at a 19-year-old kid that has all of a sudden come upon money and has been used to winning, has been used to being in the limelight and all of a sudden now when you have that freedom of being an NBA player and you travel around to different cities, that things like this can happen and I think because of the repetitive nature that has happened to Jahlil that we take it very seriously.”
On Sunday, before the latest TMZ video emerged, Okafor apologized on Twitter.
“I hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else ever could and I’m not proud of some of my decisions over the last few months. I own my choices both personally and now publicly. At this point I am cooperating and respecting the process I have to go through,” Okafor tweeted. “Going forward I don’t want to be a distraction for my team and am grateful for the support and guidance those close to me are giving. I am 100% focused on my responsibility to the League, my teammates and fans.”
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