I think we at Dime have some of the biggest Jason Smith fans in the world (I’m looking at you, Pat Cassidy.). Actually, let me re-phrase that: We at Dime might have the only Jason Smith fans in the world. But at least now, people know who he is. Last night in New Orleans’ upset of the Clippers, Smith body checked Blake Griffin on the break, was ejected and then walked off the court and through the tunnel celebrating and urging the fans to get louder.
Watching the replay, at times it appears like someone on the New Orleans’ bench put a bounty on Blake. But from other angles, it doesn’t look all that bad. Bill Laimbeer would scoff at this.
On ESPN this morning, Stephen A. Smith said this should be an automatic 10-game suspension, and even went so far as to say he wouldn’t be against having David Stern and the rest of the suits throw the cuffs on Smith for the entire season. That caught us off guard. That’s a 19-game suspension, also 14 more than Andrew Bynum initially got for what he did to J.J. Barea in the 2011 Playoffs (it was eventually reduced to a four-game suspension).
It’ll be interesting to see how the league office comes down on Smith, who tried to reconcile his idiotic post-foul behavior with an apology after the game. Too bad the damage had already been done.
How long would you suspend Smith for?
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