Note to all NBA players: a punch against your opponent won’t get you suspended, as long as it’s below the belt and you’re not a repeat offender.
That’s the impression the league left most of us with after making the decision to not suspend Serge Ibaka for taking a shot at Blake Griffin’s jewels, fining him $25,000 instead.
Griffin initially reacted with a sarcastic tweet upon hearing the news, but gave Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles an extensive response as to how he felt about Ibaka’s actions, as well as Kobe Bryant’s reaction:
“From what I heard, I guess he’s saying he was just trying to get his hand away from mine,” Griffin said. “I actually didn’t have his hand. He had my arm, so I don’t know how it’s going to be interpreted. It is surprising [he won’t be suspended], but it is a big game tonight and I don’t think they want one of their .. I really don’t know. It’s a big game.”…
“I don’t know,” Griffin said. “I don’t know. It’s a big game, though. It’s kind of a mess. It’s kind of a tough situation. Whatever the NBA wants to do and however they want to handle it, we’ll let them handle it that way.”
“I don’t really see how it can be let go,” Griffin said. “But I’m not going to do anything about it. I’m not going to cry and complain.”
“I understand what Kobe is saying. You can’t really tolerate that, but especially in that point in the game, I didn’t need to be getting into a scuffle with the game being on the line and us trying to claw our way back in it.”
Check out the animated Taiwanese news version of what happened (h/t Ballislife):
Onto other news from around the league: