DeShawn Stevenson, Charles Barkley: An overview of NBA Players’ arrests - (Part-3)
DeShawn Stevenson:
Dallas Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson has spent almost eleven years in the league and he is considered to be one of the better perimeter shooters in the league. In spite of being verbose, Stevenson NBA career has generally been devoid of controversies. However, one incident when he was just about to step in NBA, in which he was involved in a statutory rape with a 14-year old girl tarnished his reputation a fair bit.
Stevenson, who was arrested for the crime, admitted in the court as he had s*x with 14-year girl but with her consent. However, upon further investigations, it was revealed that Stevenson brought a 14-year girl to his hotel room where he made her drunk. After she was excessively drunk, he took advantage and raped her. Although, the s*x was consensual but the United States Law does not permit any citizen to get involved in any sexual activity under the age of 18.
That rape incident happened when he was not even recognised by the league. He had just finished his college and the NBA did not take any disciplinary action. Stevenson was drafted by the Utah Jazz in 2000 when they selected him 23rd overall in the first round draft. He played four years with Jazz and was traded to the Orlando Magic in 2004. He then went on-to play for the Washington Wizards and eventually arrived in the Dallas Mavericks in 2010.
Charles Barkley:
Charles Barkley was the ultimate angry young man throughout his NBA career. He was aggressive, at time foul mouthed and to top it off, he never shied away from physically taking on players, who were far bigger than him.
His aggressive attitude paid great dividends on the court; however, it was this attitude that landed ‘the round mound of NBA’ in jail two times. The first incident brought him a bitter humiliation at the peak of his professional career in early 90s. Barkley was involved in an altercation with a local man whom he injured badly. The police took notice when the report was filed against him and arrested him on altercation grounds. Months later, Barkley again got involved another fight and was arrested by the police.
Barkley who has achieved so many awards in his career never backed away from his aggressive nature. He had always been criticised for his miss-conduct both on and off the court. Once he broke a man’s nose after the game against Milwaukee Bucks. He was also arrested for throwing a plate-glass on a man but released on bail. Apart from his aggressive nature, he never even portrayed himself as a role model towards young players and kids.
On one occasion, Barkley came out in the media and stated briefly as people should not consider professional athletes as their role models. He further stated, “A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models? I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.”
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