Written by Jordan White at The Comeback
Take away his fame, just for a second. Take away everything that makes Jahlil Okafor Jahlil Okafor and make him Just Another Person. Now, look at the incidents he’s been involved in in the past few weeks: driving 108 miles per hour, trying to use a fake ID and getting into two fights on the same night. What you have are the actions not of a menace, but of a 19 year old doing typical, stupid – incredibly stupid – 19 year old stuff. Let he who was without adolescence throw the first haymaker.
This is not to make light of Okafor’s incidents, especially the fighting. Knocking someone out cold is wrong, bloodying their face is wrong. The Sixers suspended Okafor for two games yesterday, and they probably should have done it after the first video came out. If the league decides to take action and fine him or suspend him further, that wouldn’t be surprising or out of line, either. Yet some consideration must be given to the characters and context.
If this had been a random fight between a seven foot giant and a normal-sized human being, it’d go viral. We’d see click-bait headlines run rampant across the web. “This Dude Taunts a Seven-Foot Man Outside Of A Nightclub. You’ll Never Guess What Happens Next.” “Watch What Happens When A Guy Tries To Pick A Fight With A Guy Three Times His Size.” “GIANT KNOCKS THIS GUY THE F*CK OUT.” It’s as Pablo Torre tweeted: “Jahlil Okafor opted to make a statement to anyone who assumed we live in an era where we can taunt giant people IRL without any consequences.”
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