A two-game suspension for Jahlil Okafor doesn't mean the trouble surrounding the Sixers' rookie center is going away anytime soon.
The city of Camden has rejected Okafor's guilty plea for a speeding incident and reopened the case. He was cited for reckless driving and driving at an excessive rate of speed on Oct. 19 by the Delaware River Port Authority when he was pulled over and admitted going 108 mph on the Ben Franklin Bridge.
Okafor's attorney said the only reason the case is being reopened is because video surfaced of the Sixers' big man in Boston street fights last week, which brought to light the speeding violations.
"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."
That's just one of several incidents involving Okafor to surface over the past week. Things started on Thanksgiving when TMZ posted a video of Okafor in a scuffle outside of a Boston nightclub. In late October, Okafor allegedly attempted to use a fake I.D. at Misconduct Tavern in Center City. A few weeks prior, Okafor had a gun pulled on him during an altercation in the Old City section of Philadelphia.
Okafor said he was embarrassed by his behavior and expressed remorse. However, he received a two-game ban from the Sixers after a second video was released of the Boston street fight. The Boston police department does have a victim from the fight and is urging others to come forward.
“We are doing this in partnership with the NBA as well as Jahlil’s family and his representatives,” Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. “It’s a collaborative effort. It needs to be because it’s serious. The parties that are involved are the parties that should be involved and nobody is taking this anything but extremely seriously.”
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Brown later added that this could be a good teaching moment for the 19-year-old Okafor.
“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.”