ATLANTA, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Former NBA star Ralph Sampson, who was arrested in Georgia for alleged traffic violations, says he disputes one of the accusations.
The 51-year-old Sampson was arrested Tuesday night for alleged violations including a suspended license that was the result of failure to meet child-support obligations, a police report said.
Sampson, a four-time all-star who played for the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings and Washington Bullets (now Wizards), said the child-support accusation is wrong.
"My license was not suspended for failure to meet child-support obligations of any kind," he said in an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"This issue had nothing to do with child support," the e-mail said, but was "due to the non-payment of a $35 reinstatement fee."
Sampson was pulled over Tuesday around 7 p.m. in the Peachtree Corners area of Gwinnett County by a police officer doing license tag checks who noticed Sampson's license plate was expired.
Cpl. Jake Smith, a Gwinnett County police spokesman, said the information the arresting officer received about the license suspension came from the Georgia Crime Information Center and National Crime Information Center.
Sampson was released on bond shortly after several hours in jail.
The 7-foot-4 center was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1984 and MVP of the NBA All-Star Game in 1985.
