Sacramento Kings File Lawsuit Over Francisco Garcia's Injury On Exercise Ball
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The Sacramento Kings are going to court over an accident involving an exercise ball that sideline player Francisco Garcia last year for several weeks.
The Kings are seeking more than $4 million which is what they paid Garcia during his time on the bench last year.
Garcia was balancing the Gymnic - "Burst Resistant" Plus Stability Ball wile lifting weights during training camp when the ball burst and he fell breaking his wrist.
The team says Garcia was being supervised by a trainer and using the ball as instructed by the manufacturer when it burst.
The team is suing the manufacturer of the exercise ball, the supplier and the distributor.
"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," said attorney Robert Dreyer. "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."
Since Garcia's accident, the Kings have stopped using that exercise ball all together.
Kings' owner Joe Maloof released a statement today saying "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."
The companies named in the complaint could not be reached for comment.
The Perform Better catalog advertising the exercise ball now carries a warning saying the ball is not intended for use with weights.
