Was That So Hard?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jan 24, 2006 9:37PM

In a joint statement released yesterday, Antonio Davis and Michael Axelrod announced that they were putting their little tiff behind them that resulted from last week's incident at the United Center.

Over the weekend, Davis' agent and David Axelrod met to negotiate an end to the situation that became national news when the younger Axelrod threatened to sue Antonio Davis for $ 1 million for battery and slander.

This all began when Antonio Davis' wife got into a confrontation with a fan at a Bulls-Knicks game, and Antonio went into the stands to protect his family. After the game issued a statement apologizing for his actions, while defending his need to come to his family's aid.

I witnessed my wife being threatened by a man that I learned later to be intoxicated. I saw him touch her, and I know I should not have acted the way I did, but I would have felt terrible if I didn't react. There was no time to call security. It happened too quickly.

The next day, Axelrod came forward claiming to be the "man" who was "intoxicated" and made his threat of legal action for battery and slander. There's no definative recollection of what exactly transpired before Antonio Davis went into the stands. Some say it was Axelrod who was swearing and causing problems, while others believe it was some other fan. Others say it was Kendra Davis who started things.

Regardless, nobody ever identified Axelrod by name until he came forward threatening his suit. He did more damage to his good name himself than Antonio Davis did. Did he think he could get a quick payoff by threatening a suit? Did he just want the media attention? He seemed to have seconds thoughts about the whole mess when he offered to drop his planned suit in return for an apology. Davis made it clear he had no intentions of issuing one. Fortunately, cooler heads close to the situation were able to negotiate an end to this rediculous story.