Jahlil Okafor gets in second street fight in Boston
By Tom West
As if once wasn’t enough, Philadelphia 76ers rookie Jahlil Okafor was in fact involved in a second street fight in Boston.
The Philadelphia 76ers may have notched their first win of the season against the Los Angeles Lakers to advance to a brilliant (by their standards) 1-18, but they’re still miles away from getting anything right. Now, as for their best player and star rookie Jahlil Okafor, he can’t come remotely close to keeping his cool as TMZ have now released footage showing his involvement in a second street fight in Boston.
We’d already seen a physical confrontation that showed Okafor fighting someone and knocking a man to the floor, but this second piece of footage reveals that he didn’t stop as soon as we may have thought:
At 6’11, it’s hard for Okafor for him to go incognito, and that’s even more impossible when he’s with a large group on a night out and gets into such blatant fights. Around half way through this video, he can be seen sending a punch straight at another man’s face before sprinting after him across the street. From the way he had to be restrained at the start of the confrontation, to the shouting and approaching the man to throw a punch, Okafor’s behaviour was appalling to say the least.
Yes, you can use the excuse that he’s not even turned 20 years old yet and he’s a rookie. All young guys make mistakes, and just because he’s in the NBA he won’t suddenly be different.
You can argue that, but that’s not how it should be. As a professional athlete, he needs to learn to carry himself like a professional. When you’re in the world of sports, you can’t be aggravated by people trash talking in the street. Big sports fans are known to be some of the most defensive, opinionated and argumentative people there are, so there shouldn’t be any time of day to react in this way if someone makes a comment you don’t like (if, like the first fight where someone reportedly talk down about the 76ers, is what happened in the second incident).
He may be young, but there’s no excuse to act like this. In 2015, you have to know that everyone has a camera phone. When you’re a 6’11” NBA star, there’s no way someone isn’t going to film you getting into fights. And, as is always the case, that footage is going to get leaked.
There’s so much time for him to improve his ways, but if Jahlil Okafor can’t keep his head in the right place and conduct himself properly off the court, the 76ers may yet have another problem and more drama on their hands.