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George Floyd’s death opens old wounds for fomer Utah Jazz forward Thabo Sefolosha

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Thabo Sefolosha knows what it’s like to be a black man, on the ground, surrounded by police officers.
Such was the scenario when George Floyd died in Minneapolis last week.
And when Sefolosha…

Thabo Sefolosha knows what it’s like to be a black man, on the ground, surrounded by police officers.
Such was the scenario when George Floyd died in Minneapolis last week.
And when Sefolosha watched that video, his memories came flooding back.
“I was just horrified by what I saw,” Sefolosha said. “That could have been me.”
Time has not healed all wounds for Sefolosha, the NBA veteran who said he was attacked by a group of New York Police Department officers in April 2015 while they were arresting him outside a nightclub in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood. The leg that was broken in the fracas is fine now. The emotional pain returned last week when he saw video of Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air in the final moments of his life as a white police officer — subsequently charged with murder — pressed a knee on his neck.
Sefolosha has not watched much news since. His experience with police in New York has left him with a deep distrust of law enforcement, the pangs of angst flooding back even when he walks into NBA arenas and sees uniformed officers. And the latest example of police brutality left him even more upset.
“People talk about a few rotten apples,” Sefolosha said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But you know, in my experience and from what we’re seeing, I think it’s deeper than that as a culture that’s deeply rooted in it, to be honest. That’s just my honest opinion. I think it’s really… part of a culture where it’s deeper than just a few bad apples.

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