Thursday, February 23, 2012

Statement from Pritz family regarding punching incident


Media Release
February 23, 2012

The Pritz family, and especially Gabriel, is very grateful to his teammates, coaches and
the Pittsburgh community for the outpouring of support shown following the injury
sustained during the Peters Township- Woodland Hills basketball game on Saturday,
February 18, 2012.
Although we hoped this would be “old news” by this time, the continuing coverage has compelled us to issue this note of gratitude and clarification regarding Gabe’s role in the incident.
No words were exchanged between Gabe and Shakim the entire game. They competed
cleanly and intensely through 3 ½ quarters of play.In Shakim’s own words in his apology to Gabriel he stated,
“You were a cool dude on the court I had no problem with,therefore I had no reason to hit you.” The McKeesport Daily News having spoken directly to Shakim
reported that “Alonzo said Pritz was not his intended target.”
He expressed this previously in his statement to the California University Police.Gabe did not hear any racial slur from either team during the contest and certainly he didn’t make any. He is a victim in an unfortunate incident.
We remain watchful of Gabriel’s health and healing and are so grateful that he was notmore severely hurt during this incident. We continue to pray for Shakim and his family
as we are certain this has been a difficult time for them. And we hope the broader
community can now focus on the conclusion of the WPIAL Basketball Playoffs as
Gabriel just wants to get back to being a student and a basketball player. Go Indians!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is a statement really necessary? This whole thing is being blown out of proportion. It was a fight at high school basketball game! These things have happened for years and they are no big deal. Now the kid from Woody Hi is having a press conference. Are you kidding me

Anonymous said...

I cant believe the video of this has not made it to youtube yet.

prexie said...

i thought the statement was very classy. lets just move on. hey didnt dr j punch larry bird?

mike_kovak said...

As a Lakers fan dating back as long I can remember, I recall several occasions where I wanted to do the same to Bird.

In my old age, I can now respect the man for bringing out the best in Magic and the Lakers and admire the immense skills he displayed on the biggest stages.