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The truth on the Jackson Incident
Lior Klinger
,04/27/2007 |
Deanna Jackson was never arrested for punching Ina Gourevitch.
'Safsal' spoke to Jackson exclusively and brings you the full story of what really happened after game 5, and before.
As you've probably noticed, we at 'Safsal' chose not to join in on the media hoopla around the fist Deanna Jackson sent to Ina Gourevitch's face about an hour after the conclusion of the deciding game 5 of the playoff finals, which Ramla won. We knew the media will focus on that and take attention away from the Championship game, and we preferred to stick to basketball. But now, after two days in which the media factors and other kind souls blew the incident way out of proportion, acting as if a normal player is a criminal out on bail, we can no longer ignore.
There is no question that Deanna Jackson made a very serious mistake, and never should have raised her hand on Gourevitch after the game."I feel totally bad, now that I look back at everything, I feel totally bad about what I’ve done and I really do apologize to Ina, she’s a great player and I sincerely apologize to her because no matter what, a player doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment. What she has done to me in the past, it was bad also but its part of the game. I guess a lot of emotions were going and I’m just sorry about what happened", said a rather shocked and overwhelmed Jackson at her home in Ramat Hasharon.
This story has now gained major international attention, and it's important for people to understand the tremendous rivalry between Ramla and Ramat Hasharon. These are two clubs that will do everything and anything to make each other look bad and suffer. It's important to note the background behind this incident. There was a reason Jackson snapped at Gourevitch, and not at one of Ramla's post players who defended her aggressively during the whole series. One example is an intentional elbow Gourevitch sent to Jackson's face in game 3, which caused Jackson to get X-rays that night in the hospital.
During the last game things got a bit heated between Jackson and Gourevitch, comments were thrown and Gourevitch made obscene gestures towards Jackson. After both players showered and came out of the locker room, they met again in the parking lot. "After the game I was going to the bus, I got on the bus and I saw her coming out. I was going over there to talk to her because she said she was going to do something to me. I guess we got into an argument and things got... I don’t know what she was saying, she was being rude and so I guess I just snapped. I was still frustrated and emotionally upset about the game, and I actually hit her. I don’t think I should have hit her, she didn’t deserve that and I really feel bad", said Jackson.
Jackson, who has never been involved in any kind of incident such as this previously in her life, tried to explain what made her lose her head that way. "She has been over-aggressive with me through out the series and the season... It was a lot of frustration and anger and everything built up inside... I went over there just to talk to her, and I really wasn’t going over there to start no kind of trouble. We just lost a championship game, there were a lot of mixed emotions… afterwards I felt bad about it and I apologized to her", she said. "I haven’t even talked to Ina but if I could talk to her right now I would really truly apologize, because I don’t really wish anything bad on nobody ", she said.
After the punch, channel 5's cameras caught Jackson being led to a police car, placed in the back seat between two cops. Some wrote Jackson is currently out on bail, but in fact she was never arrested, and doesn’t know why she didn’t get to the police station on her own. "I don’t know why they had to put me in the car because I’ve never done anything bad, I don’t have a criminal record, I never dealt with the police before so I don’t know the proper procedure which you’re supposed to take. They didn’t explain anything to me, they were just like you need to come with me, I was like ok, I better come or he was gonna use force or something", she said. At the police station Jackson gave a statement, waited for her passport to make its way there, and went home. Police interest in a punch, needless to say, is non existent. Gourevitch filed a civil suit against Jackson and that is the reason she cannot leave Israel right now.
Gourevitch was quoted in various media outlets, and she even said Jackson ran up to her and threatened to kill her, and claimed she belongs in jail. "Today it's punches, tomorrow knives" said Gourevitch to one.co.il. "I don't know where she came from, she ran towards me yelling she was going to kill me. I didn't know what was going on, and she punched me in the face. I was glad to police was there to take her away", said Gourevitch, "or I don't know how this would have turned out". Just for the record, Gourevitch's nose was not broken from the impact, contrary to what some AP reports have written.
"I never ever said that I was gonna kill her, I never ever in my life said that" said Jackson, appalled at the accusation. "I thought that she said she was going to do something to me. I never ever said I was gonna kill you to Ina, that never came out of my mouth", she said. "I can't believe she said I belong in jail, I don’t think she really, I hope she didn’t really mean that. I think she was probably upset about what happened also and she’s just going off emotions like I was going off emotions when that happened, I don’t think she really meant that", said Jackson.
Gourevitch has a history of making racist comments. Five years ago Gourevitch said her American-less (all white) team won the Championship because they were smart, unlike the black players she played with the year before. Jackson said she wasn't aware of any of that. Last night Gourevitch went on the on prime time news and claimed that she couldn't see Jackson coming, since it was dark out and Jackson is black. "Oh my god," said Jackson who was by the way, wearing a white shirt at the time. "She saw me coming because I called her name, I guess that’s another racist comment but I don’t know Ina as a person, I’ve never really dealt with her. I don’t think she’s that bad of a person, I just think we just had a lot of arguments. I think that if she played with me, and she got to know me, we would probably be best of friends or something like that but I don’t know, I guess when you’re playing against somebody they’re the enemy. I hope she doesn’t mean a lot of the things that she said. I don’t have anything against her, I don’t hate her," said Jackson.
News of this incident made their way overseas pretty fast, and the Chicago Sky have decided to suspend Jackson indefinitely. "I just wanna say to everybody, don’t judge me for this one action. I really love Israel, it’s my place to play, I enjoy coming here. I've played here for two years and I don’t think this should misconstrued about what I’ve done in the past so I just wanna apologize to everybody on Ramla’s side and on Ramat Hasharon, my club. I really truly sincerely wanna apologize to all the fans, the mayors of both cities, the coaches, I really am truly sorry about what happened. Everybody make mistakes, I made a mistake and I’m truly sorry for it, I’m sorry to Ina that she had to go through this, I apologize to everybody in the community. I’m not a bad person, hopefully that will come out and I’ll be back playing here next year."
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