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Los Angeles court dismisses Reeves Nelson’s defamation suit against Sports Illustrated

ReevesNelson

Reeves Nelson’s defamation suit against Sports Illustrated and writer George Dohrmann has been dismissed by a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, a press release announced this week.

“We have stood behind the reporting of our Pulitzer Prize winning writer since day one,” Sports Illustrated said in a statement. “We are pleased that after reviewing the case, the court agreed it should be dismissed.”

The suit stemmed from a March story by Dohrmann entitled “Not The UCLA Way,” which detailed the gossipy interworkings of coach Ben Howland’s program at UCLA.

Among the claims in the piece were stories of Nelson’s misbehavior, allegedly verbally and physically abusing teammates and even once urinating on a teammate’s bed.

Nelson had been dismissed from the team in December 2011 for “insubordinate” conduct, three months before the story was published. He eventually went on to play in the Lithuanian Basketball League.

He has since returned to the United States and is on the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason roster.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_