I'm not sure Deshawn Stevenson will win this battle either in the court of public opinion or the court of law, but the Dallas Mavericks forward is trying to set the record straight about his arrest early last week following the team's NBA championship win over the Miami Heat. I say that not because Stevenson is a shady character or anything of that nature. Just that he was intoxicated (to what degree, we'll never know I suppose). Then again, the Dallas Police Department and justice system doesn't exactly have a perfect record when it comes to handling incidents and individuals fairly.
↵Anyway, in an interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas Monday Morning, Stevenson claims that he was merely walking down the street, disturbing nobody when a Dallas police officer stopped to question him. Original reports claimed that Stevenson was wandering around an apartment building incoherently, quite a different scenario than what Stevenson alleges took place. Let's hear his side of the story directly.
↵↵↵Do you want to clear up what happened with the quick arrest following winning the championship:
↵"People don’t understand. I was going to a party with all of my friends in an apartment. I left. I’m walking down the street … and I guess because I have tattoos a cop told me to come here, asked me what I was doing. I told him what I was doing and he told me to go by the cop car. I’m thinking that he’s going to ask me a couple questions and I’m going to go home. He comes, puts me in handcuffs and I go to jail for four hours. … I asked him what I was going to jail for and he said public intoxication."
↵Did he give you a Breathalyzer or anything?:
↵"This is the thing, I asked for it. I asked for the Breathalyzer and he wouldn’t give it to me."
↵What was he thinking as he’s sleeping on the floor in jail?:
↵"I really didn’t think about that because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes when you get put in bad situations, you think, ‘Why did I do that? Why was I driving drunk? Why did I have this? Why did I have that?’ This is like, I’m walking down the street. Sometimes people stereotype you. I’ve been like that all my life. I think it makes you stronger and understand where you came from."
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