In the just published “Showtime”, a book about the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980’s, by best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, I was interviewed about a case I handled a long time ago. While all my cases are important to me and my clients, this case received a disproportionate amount of publicity, if only because of the identity of the Defendant. As reported in the book:
“In town to play the Suns in the penultimate game of the regular season, Abdul-Jabbar headed to the Metrocenter, a shopping mall within walking distance of the team’s hotel. While cruising from store to store, he noticed a bulky camcorder pointed in his direction. Abdul-Jabbar said he asked the man to stop taping, and-when the request was refused-pushed the device aside in order to pass. ‘I didn’t touch him’, Abdul-Jabbar said. ‘All I did was brush the camera out of my way. If he didn’t push the camera in my way, I probably wouldn’t have taken any notice of him. I was just in a hurry and didn’t feel like having the guy following me with a camera.’
Fernando Nicola, the forty-year-old owner of a chain of foreign language schools in Frosinone, Italy saw things differently. In town visiting his brother, Christian, he told police he was videotaping the mall itself-‘he thought it was just fabulous, and not like anything he had back home,’ said Stephen Leshner, his attorney. ‘We watched the tape, and when Kareem walks by in the distance you can hear (Nicola) say in Italian, ‘Look at that long black man’. Nicola said Abdul-Jabbar aggressively charged forward. ‘He straight armed the guy, knocked the camera into him and knocked the camera down,’ Leshner said decades later. ‘I have nothing to gain from saying this-it was a long time ago. But it was obvious that Kareem was in the wrong here.’
Abdul-Jabbar and Nicola wound up settling out of court, but, for Leshner, the lasting memory has nothing to do with the amount. ‘I took Kareem’s deposition, and he was just an incredible jerk,’ he said. ‘I used an office space in L.A., and Kareem told us no one in the building was allowed to talk to him, or even look at him. He was very specific-no eye contact allowed. Ever. By anyone.’ ”