Via:Bossip.com
Not again. Are run-ins with the law a prerequisite to NBA success? 19-year-old Lance Stephenson, a 2nd round NBA draft pick just got signed in June and has already gotten into trouble. He was arrested yesterday for allegedly tossing his girl down a flight of stairs.
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.
It was not clear what prompted the violence, which stunned Stephenson’s former youth league coach, Joe Packer.
“It’s a shame because everything seemed to be going so well,” Packer said, referring to the couple’s relationship.
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.
Stephenson had been considered a first-round talent but dropped to the second round due to off-the-court issues, including a 2008 bust for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl inside Lincoln High School.
Following his arrest yesterday, Stephenson met with his agent, Alberto Ebanks, Packer said. Ebanks represented the troubled star in his 2008 arrest, which was resolved when he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
Stephenson, who inked a deal with the Pacers that will reportedly pay him $700,000 for the upcoming season, was a scoring machine at Lincoln, finishing his high school career as the leading scorer in New York State history.
He won four city championships while at Lincoln, making him an heir to the Coney Island hoops tradition established by former NBA star Stephon Marbury and current member of the Minnesota Timberwolves Sebastian Telfair.
