lefty
06-11-2009, 08:50 AM
Source : ESPN
Hedo Turkoglu is a law-abiding fellow, unlike all those criminals the Los Angeles police department were ticketing outside the Staples Center during the first two games of the NBA Finals.
And what exactly were all those bad guys doing?
Crossing the street, Chick Hearn Drive, without using the crosswalks.
Yes, it was a jaywalking ticket bonanza for the men in blue with quotas to fill, and no one was immune. This reporter personally witnessed an ABC/ESPN honcho and a low-level Staples Center employee being forced to produce identification in order for a police officer to write them up for their disorderly conduct, and we received word Wednesday that an NBA big shot got caught up in the ticket blitz, too.
As for Turkoglu?
At the conclusion of Game 1, he opted not to take the bus back to the hotel with his teammates because he had a friend picking him up outside the arena.
That friend was parked along the westbound side of Chick Hearn Drive when Turkoglu exited the arena, and Turkoglu was all set to scamper across the street to get in on the passenger side of his buddy's car until he was informed by the police that such a decision would be a costly one.
"They made me walk all the way down to the end of the street, to the corner, to use the crosswalk," Turkoglu said Tuesday in recounting the incident, estimating that the detour added a couple hundred yards to his trip. "I don't know if they recognized me or not."
Hedo Turkoglu is a law-abiding fellow, unlike all those criminals the Los Angeles police department were ticketing outside the Staples Center during the first two games of the NBA Finals.
And what exactly were all those bad guys doing?
Crossing the street, Chick Hearn Drive, without using the crosswalks.
Yes, it was a jaywalking ticket bonanza for the men in blue with quotas to fill, and no one was immune. This reporter personally witnessed an ABC/ESPN honcho and a low-level Staples Center employee being forced to produce identification in order for a police officer to write them up for their disorderly conduct, and we received word Wednesday that an NBA big shot got caught up in the ticket blitz, too.
As for Turkoglu?
At the conclusion of Game 1, he opted not to take the bus back to the hotel with his teammates because he had a friend picking him up outside the arena.
That friend was parked along the westbound side of Chick Hearn Drive when Turkoglu exited the arena, and Turkoglu was all set to scamper across the street to get in on the passenger side of his buddy's car until he was informed by the police that such a decision would be a costly one.
"They made me walk all the way down to the end of the street, to the corner, to use the crosswalk," Turkoglu said Tuesday in recounting the incident, estimating that the detour added a couple hundred yards to his trip. "I don't know if they recognized me or not."