A video of a confrontation between Raptor’s president Masai Ujiri and a sheriff’s deputy at the 2019 NBA championship game has resulted in a long-standing court battle. Now, the sheriff claims that Ujiri wants to make it a race issue.
Alan Strickland, the Alameda County sheriff’s deputy-involved in the video, filed a counterclaim in the United States District Court on Tuesday, claiming the Raptor’s president “is taking advantage of the now pervasive anti-law enforcement prejudices and to falsely allege racial animus and prejudicial bias is the reason for Strickland’s conduct on the date of the incident.”
Strickland accused Ujiri of punching and seriously injuring him after the 2019 NBA finals in Oakland and says the basketball executive is lying about what happened. He also feels that Ujiri shouldn’t be allowed to file a counterclaim that alleges the deputy assaulted him.
In February, Strickland sued the Raptors, Ujiri, and the NBA for $11 million, saying he suffered a concussion among other injuries after the team’s president walked onto the court at the end of the game, ignored his orders to stay off, and punched him in the face.
But in his defense, Ujiri said that’s not what happened. In his own filing, he claimed Strickland ignored his credentials, struck him without reason, and then lied about the incidents and his injuries, the San Francisco Chronicle Newspaper reports.
Only time will tell what really took place, but the video seems to speak for itself.
