Boston police say they are investigating assault allegations against Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor, stemming from a fight outside a Boston nightclub that was caught on cellphone video.
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According to the victim, the incident occurred at about 2:00 a.m. on Thursday outside the Storyville Nightclub at 90 Exeter Street in Boston.
The man said that Okafor and another man approached his group and asked some of the women for their phone numbers. Eventually, however, the victim said Okafor broke free and began pushing and punching him, knocking him to the ground. TMZ.com was first to release the video, and the victim has gone on the record to state that he suffered a cut above his eye that requires stitches.
The Boston PD says detectives are “actively investigating the incident”… but so far no charges have been filed.
Okafor claims that he was also involved in an October incident that involved a heckler constantly antagonizing the 6-foot-11 rookie. “Something I’m embarrassed about”.
“It was definitely dumb on my part”, Okafor said following the team’s shootaround Friday in Houston.
Beginning his National Basketball Association career on a team that started 0-17 is no big deal compared to the 19-year-old’s recent off-the-court adventures.
Okafor is expected to play against the Rockets on Friday night.
Although one of the unidentified sources said federal officers witnessed the October event, there is no known official report of it and Okafor declined to address it, according to the Inquirer. An NBA spokesman said Friday that the league was looking into the incident.
“This is not something that we dismiss”, Brown said. “He’s going to have to, like all of us, navigate through National Basketball Association worlds and National Basketball Association environments with a level of responsibility”.
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Okafor, apparently, took exception to the expletives hurled at him and his team and ended up in a scuffle with one of the customers who were heckling the Sixers rookie.
