It turns out Clint Capela was not the Rockets red herring everyone initially made him out to be. The Los Angeles Clippers/Houston Rockets scuffle from Monday night resulted in a few wild stories, including Chris Paul leading his new team through a secret entrance to his old team’s locker room.
But by far the funniest part of the incident was that Capela reportedly knocked on the real door to the Clippers locker room, apparently as a diversionary tactic. Parsing the hilarity here will probably only make this less funny, but consider that someone was allegedly picked to be a diversion, and how that knocking and slamming of the door actually happened.
But it turns out not only was it not a diversion, but Capela was not even the person at the Clippers’ locker room door. According to Marc Stein of the New York Times, the NBA’s investigation into the incident has deemed Capela clear of any allegations that he was the Trojan knocker. Instead, it was another Rocket, and he was reportedly not trying to act as a distraction.
Hearing strongly today that Clint Capela was not the Rocket who appeared at the Clippers' locker room doorway Monday night … belief now is that it was Tarik Black and not in any sort of diversionary tactic
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 17, 2018
So Tarik Black is the real culprit, and he was just a curious passerby here? You know what, this only brings up more questions now. Was Black just stopping by to say hello? Did he hear a commotion and want to know what was up? Somehow this made more sense when it was Capela causing a diversion.
Now I really need to know what went down here. Were the police even called in the first place? We demand answers, and the full report about the incident better reach our eyes sooner rather than later. I’m sure Capela is relieved to have his name cleared here, though.
