Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy Alan Strickland may with he never launched a lawsuit against Toronto Raptor President Masai Ujuri.
In a lawsuit stemming from an altercation with a sheriff’s deputy after the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA championship, attorneys for Masai Ujiri, the team’s president of basketball operations, filed a counterclaim Tuesday that included video the NBA team said shows he “was not an aggressor, but instead was the recipient of two very violent, unwarranted actions.”
Body-cam video in the 108-page counterclaim, filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., shows Alan Strickland, a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, grabbing Ujiri by the jacket and shoving him, telling him to “back the f— up” as Ujiri attempted to pull his team credential from his jacket to show Strickland. Ujiri was trying to join his team on the Oracle Arena court after the Raptors’ title-clinching Game 6 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
“Why did you push me?” Ujiri asks in the 6-minute 20-second video that includes edited clips. “I’m the president of the Raptors.” The two appear to exchange words, and Ujiri shows his credential again. Strickland shoves him a second time, and Ujiri shoves back. The two were separated, and Ujiri eventually was able to join the team and do a TV interview.
Today Ujuri issued a statement that follows:
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