I always liked Josh Harrellson. He reminds me of a younger Zaza Pachulia — a guy that won’t fill up the stat sheet but instead brings enough energy, enthusiasm, and timely play to be relevant for his squad. In addition to being a serviceable basketball player (good enough to be drafted by the Knicks in the 2nd round), he also happens to be an alert, responsible, and an unselfish citizen. This was apparent as he sacrificed his vehicle and put his body at risk to stop a drunk driver.
Yahoo.com has the details:
According to WKYT-TV, Harrellson and some friends were standing in the parking lot of a Lexington bar on Saturday night when they noticed a visibly drunk man getting into the driver’s seat of a truck. That man then started to back up his truck really fast in the direction of Harrellson and his friends, prompting the man best known to Kentucky fans as “Jorts” to jump into action.
“I just pushed everybody out of the way, and then bam — right into my truck,” Harrellson told WKYT.
“About four or five of us guys jumped on the truck and reached in there and turned the keys off and just tried to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere.”
“We were just worried because he could have put it in drive at any time and maybe ran somebody over, or while our arms were in the car, just kept going and we could have been drug or something. I’m the type of guy that, I want to make sure everybody else is alright. I saw it, I moved out of the way, I’m fine. My truck got hit, that’s replaceable. I was just thankful nobody got hurt and the kids were fine.”
Props to Harrellson for his brave actions. With the NBA in a lockout, it’s actually refreshing to see some good news. It’s never a good thing when an inebriated person gets behind the wheel. Thankfully, Harrellson & Co. were in the vicinity and were able to prevent any misfortune.