Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Isaiah Rider was arrested on Dec. 4 on suspicion of having violated a protective order. Upon release, Rider has been quick to make it known that he did no wrong, telling TMZ that his wife, Vanessa Rider, blindsided him because she is upset about his filing for divorce.
“To brief you guys, I filed for divorce,” Rider said. “We’ve been co-parenting. I’ve been around my kid. I’ve been around her for the last six months. Unbeknownst to me, she filed for a protective order in July. So, we’re in the 12th month. I go home, and she’s a little upset because she finds out that I filed for trial to go through with the divorce, and we have a court date.
“So, I went home,” Rider stated. “There was a brief conversation. I’m outside relaxing. The police come up and tell me about a protective order from 6 months ago, unbeknownst to me. And this all stems from her being upset about me filing for divorce, going through with it, and really trying to play games with my kid and trying to keep him away from me.
“And for the last 6 months during this so-called order, we’ve been together,” Rider continued. “We’ve co-parented. We’ve taken our kids to go work out. We’ve taken our kids out on outings. We have a four-year-old and a 15-year-old. So, I was just blindsided by this. And really, this is more out of spite.
“I’m not violent,” Rider added. “I’ve never even spanked my child. I’ve never even hit her. So, this order is just really it’s it’s not fair, but I’m dealing with it, and I’m going to get it squashed.”
Rider was charged with one count of interfering with judicial proceedings. The 54-year-old claims to be innocent as he had no idea about the order, which Vanessa had been granted on July 3, 2025.
Rider had filed for divorce on Nov. 21, 2024. He states that all was well until he told Vanessa he was going to go through with it and provided her with the court date.
“The order is from July 3rd, I had no idea until December 5th,” Rider said. “So during that six months, we’ve been around each other… I’ve been in her house with no issue, no incidents, or anything. And I had no idea this was going on. And once I told her that no, I’m going to go through with the divorce, that’s when she had the police come over to the house, and they detained me, and they said, indeed, there is a protective order from six months ago.
“They thought it was really weird that we’re around each other, we’re together, been around each other for the last six months,” Rider stated. “They found it highly unusual, but yeah, that happened. So I went to my son’s game. I left without incident, without talking to anyone, just watch his game. I left. I’m about four miles down the road on the freeway. Police immediately pull me over.
“That’s why I know I have a tracker, which is illegal,” Rider added. “I’ve already located the tracker. They pulled me over and detained me for about 30 minutes. The order was so fresh. It wasn’t really in the system, but after a while, they said, ‘Well, we’re going to take you in and arrest you. We don’t know what’s going on, but supposedly you’re not supposed to be at the school, not even to watch your son’s game.'”
Vanessa filed a motion two days after Rider’s arrest to modify temporary orders in the case and force him to pay the child support he had been ordered to provide earlier that year.
Rider’s attorney Benjamin Taylor has stated that Vanessa is just trying to get back at him over the divorce. Taylor said it’s easy to get order protection in Arizona until the order is served. He and his client are confident they’ll win this court battle.
As for Rider’s play on the basketball court, he played nine seasons in the NBA for five teams. He won the NBA championship in 2001 with the Lakers and also emerged triumphant in the Slam Dunk Contest in 1994.
