David Fizdale
David Fizdale, head coach of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, has no connection to Detroit.
But he says he cried when he heard about Davontae Sanford, the young man in Detroit who was imprisoned for eight years for a quadruple murder he did not commit when he was age 14, reports George Hunter of the Detroit News. Sanford was released from prison June 8.
“For a 14-year-old to have his youth stripped of him in such a manner, it brought me to tears,” said the coach in an email to the Detroit News.
Hunter reports that the coach directed his team’s marketing department to contact The Detroit News to see if there was anything he could do to help Sanford.
“It made me think of how I would react if I couldn’t help my own son in this situation.
“I will work with the Grizzlies organization to do something meaningful for Davontae and his family. I don’t have any specifics so far, but I just want him to know that people will be fighting for him.”
Davontae Sanford (Facebook photo)
Others in Detroit area have been doing things to help Sanford out.
“Right now, we’re concentrating on the things that will immediately help Davontae: clothes, job offers, things like that," the family attorney Valerie Newman said, according to the News. "Afterward, we’ll get to the fun things people are offering."
