Sacramento Kings Francisco Garcia files a lawsuit against an exercise ball maker: NBA News
Sacramento Kings forward Francisco Garcia has filed a lawsuit against the exercise ball maker on account of a weightlifting accident back in 2009. The use of the product from the company resulted in a broken arm for Garcia.
The incident occurred when the 29-year-old Garcia was performing drills in the training camp. The 6 ft 7 inch forward was balancing on the stability ball and at the same time was lifting some weights when the ball exploded and
threw the Dominican native on the floor, resulting in a broken forearm.
The injury forced Garcia to stay out of the court for several weeks and he missed 57 games during the 2009-2010 season. Garcia struggled with the injury in the last season as well and played only 58 games, posting an average of
9.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
Apart of missing a large amount of games due to a broken arm, Francisco Garcia also claimed that he has lost income during the time. However, the most hurtful thing was that the incident occurred on the back of a career-best season
in which Garcia racked up 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
According to the lawsuit, the ball makers advertised that their product can sustain 600 pounds of pressure and is burst resistant. However, in Garcia’s case the ball exploded without even lifting 600 pounds as the Dominican native
cannot lift anywhere close to that much weight.
Francisco’s attorney Robert Dreyer stated that his client is not the only person who became the victim of using the stability ball from the same makers. In fact, there are a couple of more lawsuits against them.
“There is information that we have that the manufacturer and one of the distributers has been sued a half a dozen times starting from 2000. There’s a lawsuit in Colorado. There’s a lawsuit in San Diego. There’s a lawsuit in Tennessee.
There’s a lawsuit in New York.” Robert said.
The Kings management is also seeking to cover up their damages of more than 4 million dollars which they spent on their player, when Garcia was benched due to broken arm.
Sacramento Kings owner Joe Maloof has taken the initiative to prohibit the use of the ball in their training camps to avoid any more accidents.
“The main concern I have is to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. We want to ensure other teams, from high school players to other professional sports franchises, understand these balls are dangerous. We didn’t expect
it to happen, it was devastating for us.”