On Sunday at Sleep Train Arena, a push from Paul Pierce caused Omri Casspi to go flying out of bounds and into a section of baseline seats.
Pierce was assessed a flagrant foul on the play for his actions, but it wouldn’t change the fact that Casspi was already in the air and headed for the fans.
While a player stumbling into the crowd isn’t uncommon in the NBA, the Kings forward didn’t just hit any fan in the stands, he went shoulder-first into Dillon, a 4-year-old girl who was sitting courtside.
“I was kind of seeing where I was going, saw this little girl and was trying to stop myself,” Omri Casspi said, adding that he quickly became afraid that he was about to hit her at full speed.
Casspi and his teammates immediately tried to see if Dillon was alright, as she was in tears – though we might be in tears too if a 220 pound NBA player were flying directly at us and nothing was going to stop it.
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“I saw how frightened she was and I think everything was so overwhelming for her,” he said following Tuesday’s shootaround. As a result, Casspi decided that he needed to do something to follow up with her for braving through what happened.
He brought her to the Kings practice facility to give her a singing Elsa doll from the animated hit 'Frozen', complete with light-up jewelry and Olaf. “I figured it would be nice to give her a present and have a talk with her.”
Dillon handled the whole situation like a champ, Casspi showed himself to truly be a class-act and everyone is happy that the incident is behind them.