The Los Angeles Lakers were weak at center, with Jaxson Hayes the only current healthy backup to Anthony Davis.

Hayes signed a two-year minimum contract with the Lakers in 2023, with the second year being a player option he chose to return to the team for the 2024-2025 season.

The Lakers signed Hayes despite him having a domestic violence issue with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2021. Hayes was arrested for the incident with his girlfriend and later sentenced to three years of probation, 450 hours of community service and one year of weekly domestic violence classes.

The NBA did not punish Hayes following the initial investigation into the arrest, but more evidence recently surfaced in the form of a TMZ video and the league is reopening its investigation as a result, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:

The NBA is reopening an investigation into a 2021 incident involving Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes after TMZ posted a video of the altercation between him and his then-girlfriend on Saturday.

“Following the media report and video posted this morning, we are reopening our investigation,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement to ESPN.

The evidence in the video seems quite damning for Hayes, a 24-year-old former No. 8 overall pick out of Texas:

TMZ posted 5½ minutes of security camera footage from the 2021 incident, which showed Hayes — then a member of the New Orleans Pelicans — arguing with Sofia Jamora, his then-girlfriend. In the video, Hayes appears to pull Jamora out of a doorway as she can be heard saying, “Stop. Let me go.” Hayes can be heard replying, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Hayes and Jamora then leave the home and continue their argument in the driveway. “I won’t let you hit me anymore,” Jamora can be heard saying in the video. “What do I look like, a punching bag?”

Not long after that comment, the video shows Hayes walking away from Jamora and then turning his head to spit in her direction.

Hayes says he will continue to cooperate with the league’s investigation into how:

“There has already been an extensive investigation that we have been working with the league on, and as that investigation is reopened, we will continue to do so,” a spokesperson for Hayes told ESPN on Saturday.

The Lakers organization is also aware of what is going on and is cooperating:

A Lakers spokesperson contacted Saturday evening told ESPN: “We are working with the league.”

Depending on what the Lakers decide after an investigation, Hayes could face a lengthy suspension, which would leave the Lakers even more short-handed in the frontcourt.

The video obtained by TMZ, which contains sensitive content, can be viewed HERE.

Jaxson Hayes likes solid rotations under JJ Redick

Jaxson Hayes has been the Lakers’ primary backup center to start the season, and he recently discussed how much better things have been with establishing rotations and substitution patterns under new head coach JJ Redick.

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