shooting – Sportscolumn Blog

Jamaal Tinsley was in the wrong place at defiantly the wrong time

Jamaal Tinsley and his crew were shot at early Sunday morning near a downtown Indianapolis hotel after some apparently jealous thugs took issue with the group at a club. The incident went down around 3:40 a.m. when the unknown assailants opened fire with an assault rifle at the three vehicles Tinsley’s friends were in. The group detoured to the hotel once they realized they were being followed. The Pacers equipment manager, sitting in the back seat of Tinsley’s car, was shot in both elbows.

Jamaal’s brother, James Tinsley, opened fire on a gray Chrysler and a dark pickup as two of the cars chased the shooters approximately two blocks away. Jamaal was not involved in the subsequent chase.

And of course, this whole thing is really based on something completely senseless. According to the Indy Star:

A group was giving members of Tinsley’s crew a hard time about the expensive cars they were driving – a Mercedes, Rolls Royce and Dodge Charger – and the amount of money they made.

So you’re telling us that these morons basically approached Tinsley’s crew and said “You guys are rich and have really nice cars. You’re a bunch of losers!” Whatever happened to just being jealous from afar?

Needless to say, even though Pacers coach Jim O’Brien was happy to hear his player wasn’t hurt and gave him the day off because he “wanted him to get away from basketball for the day,” O’Brien wasn’t exactly sympathetic to Tinsley’s situation.

We leave it up to individuals to be responsible. Was I happy that somebody was out at 3 o’clock in the morning? No, I wasn’t. But that’s a decision that was made, and it was the wrong decision to make.

“It wasn’t on a game night. We had off yesterday and we were practicing at 11 o’clock today.

“I would think as we all suspect, nothing good happens after 1 o’clock if you’re around alcohol or around an environment where there could be weapons. Nothing good can happen in that situation.

But the Heat’s Alonzo Mourning went a step further, blaming the flashy NBA lifestyle for bringing the player haters out.

You’ve got to understand that we all are vulnerable when it comes to putting ourselves in situations where the public has access to us. And if we go out and flaunt and expose our luxuries, there are some jealous people out there who want it and put us in a position where we’re targets,” Mourning said. “I’m not saying you’ve got to hide it, but don’t be flamboyant. Don’t walk into a club with a crowd of people wearing a $250,000 chain around your neck or pull out a wad of hundreds for everybody to see. Pull out a credit card instead. I mean, you’re asking for attention and you’re asking for trouble.

Just think of how much trouble Pacman Jones could have avoided if he had whipped out his Visa card instead of making it rain the old fashioned way.

Links:

[IndyStar.com]: Shots fired at Pacers’ Jamaal Tinsley
[USAToday.com]: Heat curb Clippers, make Riley third NBA coach with 1,200 wins

DeShawn Stevenson claims to have slept through shootout at his crib

As if David Stern didn’t already have enough on his plate with the contamination of his league by a crooked ref, the commish now has a shooting at DeShawn Stevenson’s Orlando home to deal with.

The Washington Wizards’ guard was supposedly asleep in his gated community home early Monday morning after an evening of clubbin’ ended with Stevenson and some of his boys bringing home some ~~sluts~~ women from the club. According to witnesses, the group was followed into the gated suburban community by a Cadillac Escalade and the driver of the Caddy got into an argument with one of the ~~hos~~ patrons from the club before opening fire. During the rain of gunfire, bullets tore up Stevenson’s Lexus SUV, his BMW and his crib, but Stevenson’s crew claims that they simply ran into the house and never returned fire. Apparently, the group of, uh, groupies just vanished into the night in their hooker heels and exposing outfits.

But, like always, something isn’t adding up in this high profile crime because Stevenson’s entourage is saying they never fired any weapons at the vehicle, but investigators found blood on one of the cars and bullet casings in the driveway. And about 30 minutes after the shootout, a man named Curtis Ruff drove up to a hospital in an Escalade with gunshot wounds to his leg. Ruff refused to cooperate, but the authorities feel pretty confident that he’s the dude they’re looking for. Well, duh!

However, either this guy decided to blast himself in the leg or he’s a worse shot than Harry from Dumb and Dumber OR DeShawn’s boys are lying about the return fire. We’re guessing it’s the latter. And what makes this even more suspicious is that nobody involved in the incident wanted to press charges. Now, we know that rich athletes are a completely different breed of people than us, but we can guarantee that if someone starts shooting up our home then we’re going after his ass. We’re guessing that like Michael Vick and all the other liars in the world of sports, Stevenson will eventually come out with a completely different story regarding the incident. Because, as of now, this story makes Jayson Williams’ tale of playfully twirling a shotgun before the shooting death of his limo driver seem somewhat plausible.

Links:

[SI.com]: Authorities investigate shooting at NBA star DeShawn Stevenson’s home
[WashingtonPost.com]: Man Shot at Wizard’s Home