Lance Stephenson has received boat loads of media attention, and been called ‘Born Ready’ for quite some time since his days of dominating the high school basketball scene in Brooklyn at Abraham Lincoln. Many felt during his high school days that had the rules been different he might have a legit shot at going straight from high school ball to the NBA.
Well today news is breaking with details of some more media attention coming Stephenson’s way, but this time for all the wrong reasons. Apparently Stephenson was arrested yesterday on assault and battery charges for pushing his longtime girlfriend (and the mother of his child) down a flight of stairs. Here are some details from the Daily News:
Coney Island basketball star Lance Stephenson – a second-round pick of the Indiana Pacers in the June NBA draft – was busted yesterday for pushing his girlfriend down a flight of stairs, cops said.
Stephenson, 19, a legendary player at Brooklyn’s Abraham Lincoln High School, roughed up Jasmine Williams, 21, at her Brooklyn apartment building about 5 a.m., police said.
The 6-foot-5 rookie point guard’s cowardly shove sent Williams – the mother of Stephenson’s child – tumbling headfirst down 10 steps, requiring her to be treated at a hospital for injuries to her head and neck, cops said.
Stephenson, who played one year at the University of Cincinnati before getting drafted 40th overall by the Pacers, was hit with a felony rap of second-degree assault, cops said.
He was also booked on charges of third-degree assault, harassment and menacing. Prosecutors added a charge of criminal possession of a weapon, but a spokesman could not specify what the weapon was. {via}
Stephenson has faced one disappointment after another after finishing his high school playing days. After facing problems with academic entry tests, an incident of groping a 17 year old girl, an incident of assault on a teammate, and developing a reputation as a guy that doesn’t take direction well, many big college programs shied away from the flashy scorer from Brooklyn. After a slow start for Cinci last season, he eventually turned it around with the Bearcats putting up solid numbers. But even so, he slipped out of the first round of the NBA Draft this season and was picked up by the Indiana Pacers who were one of the few teams willing to take a risk on the troubled star. Well before the season has even started it looks like that risk is not paying off for Indiana.
The Pacers have already signed Stephenson to a contract that will pay him $700,000 this season, but that could all be in jeopardy depending on how things shake out with his latest legal troubles.
