The theft comes about 10 days after Knicks forward Derrick Williams was robbed of $617,000 in jewelry from his home by two women whom he had taken home from a Manhattan club. Police are still looking for the suspects.
Williams said Tuesday night that there were some falsehoods being circulated about the incident. The case raised questions about whether NBA players should have a curfew similar to those of other professional sports. In April, Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland, his girlfriend and another woman were stabbed following a late-night argument on the street near a Manhattan nightclub.
Fisher said the team might consider instituting a curfew at a later date.
“I think it’s very important to respect Cleanthony and his mom and his family before debating policy and what should and shouldn’t be,” he said.
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony said he was “shocked” to hear the news, saying Early is “a very humble guy who stays to himself.”
Anthony, who has played in New York for nearly five years, believes he and his teammates need to be cautious when out in public.
“You have to be careful,” he said. “You have to be aware of kind of what you’re doing and your surroundings and where you’re at. … Guys are going to go out. Guys are going to have a good time. I think we just have to be a little bit more aware and a little bit more conscious of where we’re at, who we’re around, our surroundings, who’s in our circles and things like that.”
Early, a native of the Bronx, was selected by New York in the second round of the 2014 draft following his senior season at Wichita State. A 6-foot-8 forward, he has seen action in 10 of the Knicks’ 33 games this season and is averaging 0.7 points per game. He played for less than a minute in the Knicks’ 108-96 win over Detroit on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Early missed two months of the 2014-15 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, the same one injured in Wednesday’s shooting.
In a 2014 story in the New York Daily News that detailed Early’s amateur career, he said he was “born on the bottom.”
“I wasn’t bad, just mischievous, lacked guidance,” he said. “I had to overcome those adversities, understand the world is a certain type of way. I’m not gonna cry about it or dwell. I have an opportunity to improve by rational decisions.”
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN’s Ian Begley was used in this report.
Article Appeared @http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14465060/new-york-knicks-cleanthony-early-shot-knee-strip-club