Jahlil Okafor will serve the second half of his two-game suspension following the release of a second video that shows the rookie center punching someone outside of a nightclub in Boston. Aside from his incidents in Massachusetts, Okafor was also pulled over for going 108 mph on the Ben Franklin Bridge. The city of Camden has reportedly rejected Okafor's guilty plea deal and reopened the case, leading the Duke alum's attorney to think that his recent off-court issues caused them to make this decision.
"It's a shame that any other defendant would come in and be able to enter into a plea agreement and it wouldn't matter, but because of who he is now he's almost becoming victimized," said Okafor's attorney, Andrew Smith, who was in court for the matter on Thursday. "And now the city of Camden wants to retract the plea and wants him to do community service and all sorts of requests that would never happen in a speeding case." [CSNPhilly.com]
In addition to his Boston videos surfacing and the speeding issue, Okafor also allegedly tried to get into a bar in Center City with a fake ID back in October, the same month that he a had gun pointed at his head following an altercation in Old City. Sixers head coach Brett Brown views this as a learning experience for the 19-year-old center.
“This is my personal opinion — I see this in a different light and if this is all going to come out and it’s going to hit him hard and because of the repetitive incidents that are now being revealed that are that dramatic, then this is a good thing,” Brown said. “If lessons are going to be learned and this 19-year-old man has to learn the responsibility of wearing a 76ers uniform and carrying an NBA logo, then it has to be done in the magnitude of the national media spotlight to make our point, then I say that’s not a bad thing. Let’s make our point. It is hard love. There have been mistakes that have been made and he has owned it. We will support him, he is ours and we will move on.” [CSNPhilly.com]
The Sixers host the Nuggets on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. Tip-off is slated for 1pm.
