Man and player appreciated by the entire basketball world, Boris Diaw has never been the type to be talked about negatively or to get into trouble. However, Babac had a hell of a misadventure with the Detroit police during his NBA career. Explanations.
Hard to find more popular than Boris Diaw in the world of the orange ball, that’s a fact. Epicurean at heart, the former captain of the Blues likes to enjoy life and its pleasures in complete discretion. However, in 2005, everything could have ended during a rather creepy anecdote with the Detroit police…
Boris Diaw roughly arrested by Detroit police in 2005
Guest of NBA Extra in 2020, the former Suns player had told this crazy affair at length:
It was 2005, and the Spurs were facing the Pistons in the NBA Finals. I had made the trip to see a game of the series in Detroit. You should know that at that time, Detroit was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, and that the police were therefore on the alert. After the match, Popovich and Tony (Parker, editor’s note) invite us to join the team at the hotel. We go on the roads in a van, with in particular Gaëtan Muller, now deputy president of ASVEL, and Eric Judor.
We are on the road, and we pass a police car. As soon as she sees us, the police car turns around and gets behind us. I remind the driver, as a precaution, to go slowly and not to overspeed. Behind, a second police car joins the first, and the flashing lights begin to sound.
A third car arrives, flashing light also on, then a fourth. The police block our way and ask, via loudspeaker, to cut the contact of our vehicle. Eric Judor makes jokes, but we quickly stop laughing because the guys behind us in the car suddenly see the red dot of the gun pointed at our heads.
I then told everyone to control their movements, because all it takes is for a police officer to think that one of us is trying to retrieve a weapon, or something like that, to risk being shot. They took us out of the van one by one, hands in the air. Our driver was handcuffed and put in a police car. Same for me: “Hands behind your back, on your knees”, handcuffs. They did this for the 7 people in the van.
The 4th person was a friend of Eric Judor, who spoke poor English. When the policeman told him to keep his hands up, he put them on his stomach. Another policeman then threw himself on him and put him on the ground, knee on his head. He then came towards me and pointed the gun in my direction. I told him, “Don’t shoot. We are French, some do not understand what you are telling us”.
In the end they took us out one by one and then it was established that it was a mistake on the rental car. It was declared stolen, without our knowing it of course, and the police reserved this manu militari treatment for us because in a region so conducive to crime, they did not want to take the risk of being shot. Me, I wanted at all costs to avoid the burr. Fortunately, everything ended well and we can laugh about it today…
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????♂️ Comment @theborisdiaw ended up handcuffed and shot by the Detroit police with Eric Judor and Gaëtan Muller after going to see Tony Parker play? pic.twitter.com/TJdadlDxj4— NBAextra (@NBAextra) October 9, 2020
More fear than harm for Boris Diaw, Gaëtan Muller, and Eric Judor, plunged despite themselves into a situation that could have totally degenerated. If the anecdote makes you smile today, there is clearly enough to push a big sigh of relief…