Durham Police have now charged P.J. Hairston with assault and battery for his involvement in an altercation during a Durham YMCA pickup basketball game Sunday. The high school player involved has now been identified as Kentrell Barkeley, a rising senior at Northern Durham High.
ESPN.com’s Jeff Goodman reports Vince Phillips, a friend of Barkeley, and a men’s basketball player at Coastal Carolina University, gave his account of the incident.
“Kentrell’s team has beaten P.J. a few times and they were winning again. P.J. was talking to him, then he got the ball, looked up the court and dribbled to Kentrell full speed, threw his fist and then went and scored. Then he hit him again. I’m a life long UNC fan and I played against P.J. in high school. I’ve always rooted for him – even with all the stuff that happened last year. But after this, I don’t think I could look him in the face.”
The Charlotte Hornets have yet to released an updated comment on the situation.
Originally published at 5:41 a.m. July 7, 2014.
DURHAM — The Charlotte Hornets say they are looking into an altercation involving rookie P.J. Hairston and a person his agent described as an area high school player during a pickup basketball game at the Durham YMCA.
The Hornets issued a statement Sunday night saying they’re aware of the incident and “are in the process of gathering additional information.”
Hairston’s agent, Juan Morrow, says the unidentified player was over-aggressively playing Hairston, leading to a shoving match. Morrow says the player “took a swing at P.J. and P.J. swung back.”
The Durham Police Department said they had no information about the incident when contacted Sunday night, and it’s unclear if police were called.
Hairston was the 26th pick in the draft by the Miami Heat, but was quickly traded to Charlotte.
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