Jaleen Smith on Nunnally-Lazarevic incident: 'James defended himself' / News - Basketnews.com

Partizan guard Jaleen Smith claims he saw the whole incident between James Nunnally and Stefan Lazarevic, saying that his teammate simply defended himself from Crvena Zvezda member's actions.

Credit: ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic Credit ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic

Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade guard Jaleen Smith was the only witness who saw the whole incident between his teammate James Nunnally and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade member Stefan Lazarevic.

Jaleen Smith

Team:Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePosition:PGAge:29Height:193 cmWeight:93 kgBirth place:Texas, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

Smith revealed he'll need to come over to the police station as a witness and shared some of the details that he saw from an altercation.

"I was there for the whole thing. They probably had an advantage in that. The guy [Lazarevic] who didn't play provoked James, and he just defended himself. I was right there," Smith told Bojan Brezovac from Mozzart Sport.

"The guy came out and wanted to actually do something. James defended himself. If you ask anybody if it would happen to him, I'm sure everybody would have the same reaction. You know, defend himself [from being] choked," Smith continued.

The Partizan guard couldn't explain the coincidence that the CCTV cameras didn't catch the whole incident from the beginning.

"You see the [police] papers. Now, I'll need to go up there [to the police station] in the morning after today. I was the only person that really saw everything. I don't know if they knew or… Because everything I saw was off the camera, not something glitched at the end of the fight. Hopefully, I'll see the whole thing when I get there tomorrow. I'm just gonna tell my side of the story to tell you the truth," Smith concluded.

Before the ABA League finals Game 3 on Sunday, Crvena Zvezda released a press release, claiming that Nunnally attacked and wounded Lazarevic.

Photographs provided by the club show that Lazarevic is visibly hurt, as his left eye is bruised and cut.

Later, Crvena Zvezda published the video recording of the incident, but Partizan disputed it, claiming that part of the video was deleted.

Support BasketNews so we could make even better content.