Former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen is being sued for $4 million by a man who claims that he was the victim of a "brutal and unjustified physical attack" when he approached Pippen at an upscale sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Camran Shafighi, 49, a luxury car salesman, is seeking the $4 million to compensate for economic losses because he has been unable to run his business. Shafighi says that he has suffered from headaches, nausea and trouble breathing as well as other issues since the altercation with the NBA Hall-of-Famer, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"This has been pretty devastating to him," Lee Boyd, Shafighi's attorney, told the Chicago Tribune. "This was not the result of some drunken barroom brawl. This is a guy who wanted to take a picture with a cellphone."
Los Angeles County Sherriff's officials have said that the case is still under investigation. Pippen voluntarily went to the sheriff's office after the incident on June 23 and was not charged at the time. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said that several witnesses described Shafighi as being intoxicated at the time of the incident, according to the Associated Press.
The confrontation took place at Nobu Malibu as Pippen was eating with his family. Boyd contends that Shafighi merely approached Pippen to ask if he could take a picture for the 12-year-old son of his girlfriend and then Pippen knocked him out with a single punch, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Shortly after the incident a source told the New York Daily News a very different version of the events that night. The source said that Shafighi was very intoxicated and that he spit on Pippen and called him the "N-word" in front of Pippen's 4-year-old daughter. It was at that point that Pippen struck Shafighi. The source also claimed that when Pippen left the restaurant Shafighi had no visible injuries.
Boyd was adamant in disputing this version of events, according to E! News.
"Sources' close to Mr. Pippen have suggested that our client used a racial slur prior to this attack. This claims is simply not true," Boyd said in a statement.
