Police engage in standoff at STAPLES prior to Clippers-Cavs

What was shaping up to be a routine day in the life of the Los Angeles Clippers took a bizarre turn Saturday morning, when police engaged in a standoff lasting nearly half an hour with a knife-wielding man on the court at STAPLES Center, just prior to Saturday’s scheduled game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Early arriving VIP spectators had already started to file in about 11 A.M., but they were ushered out as the arena was put on lockdown. At least two of the Clippers — Randy Foye and Al-Farouq Aminu — and a couple of Clippers coaches were on the court warming up. Most of the Cavaliers players and staff had not yet arrived and some were held in the tunnel area until the lockdown was lifted.

A security officer noticed an individual walking around the building coming close to an employee entrance, said STAPLES Senior Vice President Lee Zeidman in a news briefing. "He tried to enter the doors and we tried to secure him and stop him . . . he pulled out a knife at that point and told our officers in no uncertain terms to get away from him,” Zeidman said.

Security chased the man as he ran onto the court. Los Angeles Police Department officers, who arrived at 11 A.M., then tried to talk with the man. Ultimately, officers tackled him near the Cavaliers bench and took him into custody. Zeidman described the weapon as being the size of a steak knife, but other individuals who witnessed the incident said that the knife was larger.

Players watched the spectacle unfold on a video monitor in a hallway outside their locker rooms. There were no reports of injuries, and the game proceeded on schedule.

''That was crazy, man. There aren't too many knife standoffs in Oklahoma - not that I can remember. So it's a first for me,'' said Clippers All-Star rookie Blake Griffin. ''I was sitting in here next to (DeAndre Jordan), and Randy Foye came in and said: `Yo, somebody just pulled a knife.' I was like, `What?' And then they explained the whole thing. We were trapped in here for a while. But both teams had to go through it, so it didn't really put us at a disadvantage.''

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro and his Cavaliers counterpart, Byron Scott, requested extra time for their teams to warm up, but were turned down. The Clippers went on to a 100-92 victory.

''It was a weird day, period,'' Scott said. ''You had things happen throughout the day, but you've just got kind of put it in the back of your mind and play basketball. And I think both teams did that.''

Officials said it was unclear what had prompted the behavior.

“From what I understand, he was talking a lot of gibberish, making a lot of veiled threats, and nobody could really understand him, Zeidman said. "We had our officers trying to negotiate with him, to get him to drop the knife. He would not do that. Once LAPD took over, we kind of backed off.

“There was a lot of vulgarity, a lot of statements that didn’t make any sense. We quite frankly don’t understand why he tried to do this," Zeidman said. "There were no specific demands, just told us to back away or else you’re going to get hurt: ‘Leave me alone. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to get whatever I want.’ But he never made any statements to our people to the effect of what he actually wanted."

— Lisa Dillman
— The Associated Press contributed to this story