Former Lakers player Derek Fisher accused of DUI after crash

LOS ANGELES >> Former Los Angeles Lakers player and ex-New York Knicks head coach Derek Fisher was arrested today on suspicion of drunken driving after he flipped his vehicle on a California highway, authorities said.

Neither Fisher nor his passenger, girlfriend and former “Basketball Wives” reality star Gloria Govan, was injured in the early morning crash, the California Highway Patrol said.

Fisher was driving on U.S. 101 in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles when his 2015 Cadillac veered onto the right shoulder while approaching an interchange. The car hit the shoulder’s concrete curb and guardrail, overturned and came to a rest on its roof, blocking two lanes of the highway, Highway Patrol said.

Officers discovered that Fisher had been drinking and arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after a DUI test, authorities said.

“We are beyond grateful that we are both OK and no one else was involved,” Fisher and Govan said in a joint statement today. The two-sentence statement also thanked supporters for their thoughts and prayers, but it did not address the drunken driving arrest.

After his playing career ended, Fisher was hired in June 2014 to be the first coach for Knicks President of Basketball Operations Phil Jackson, under whom Fisher won five championships with the Lakers.

The first season was the worst in franchise history with a 17-65 record, but the team played better early in the second season before Jackson fired Fisher last February with the Knicks in a 1-9 tailspin.

He has been working as an analyst for TNT as well as for Spectrum SportsNet’s Lakers coverage this season.