NBA star Kobe Bryant has agreed to an unspecified financial settlement with the estate of a Memphis man who claimed the Los Angeles Lakers guard intentionally hurt him while he sat courtside during a Lakers/Grizzlies game in 2005.
Bill Geeslin has since passed away for reasons unrelated to the incident, but alleged in a 2008 deposition that Bryant forearmed him in the chest while diving for a loose ball during the Grizzlies’ 85-73 win over their visitors at FedExForum.
“He did not apologize,” said Geeslin, an insurance agent from Blytheville, Arkansas. “He walked away and pushed – he kind of pushed his arm toward me and glared at me and walked away.”
Geeslin surmised that Bryant was angry that his team was losing or that the referees call no foul on the play leading to the sudden contact between the two men.
Geeslin said the incident made him feel like “a human punching bag.” He said he filed suit in federal court because he felt violated and wanted to make sure that Bryant was never again able to “inject such pain.”
Through his attorneys, Bryant acknowledged landing in the spectator section at one point during the game, but denied Geeslin’s allegations of assault and battery and outrageous conduct.
Geeslin was 49 at the time of his death two months after his deposition, but his mother substituted as the plaintiff and continued the suit on her son’s behalf in search of punitive damages “exceeding $75,000.”
The case was dismissed in 2010, but the U.S. 6th Circuit Court heard the appeal and said the lower court would have to hear the assault and battery charges.
The western Tennessee district court ruled that fans sitting courtside inherently assume the risk of contact with players, but said that would not include the alleged forearm shove.
Jury selection was set to begin when both sides reached a financial agreement to make the matter go away.
Attorneys for both sides declined comment.
