After pleading guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in early September, Darren Collison has been handed an eight-game suspension by the NBA. The incident involving his wife happened earlier this year at the couple’s home in Sacramento. His plea carried with it a 20-day jail sentence (which Collison would likely avoid), mandatory completion of a domestic battery program, community service, and three years probation.
Here’s more on the specifics of the suspension from Marc Stein of ESPN.com:
League sources told ESPN.com on Sunday that Collison will be allowed to participate in Kings exhibition games and practices but must miss Sacramento’s opening eight games after he received three years of informal probation and a 20-day jail sentence for a May incident involving his wife at his Sacramento-area home.
The suspension will cost Collison a total of $380,324 in lost salary.
The suspension could be seen by some as a slap on the wrist, given the way the NBA has cracked down on previous offenders in recent years. For instance, in 2014, the league handed Jeff Taylor a 24-game suspension after he pleaded guilty to a similar domestic violence charge. The problem is that there is no set standard in place for how the NBA deals with domestic violence offenders. Commissioner Adam Silver said at the time of Taylor’s suspension that the league will continue to handle such incidences on a case-by-case basis.
(ESPN.com)
