It had been a while since we were given an honest-to-god NBA fight, but on Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets made all of us reset our “DAYS SINCE BASKETBALL PLAYERS THREW PUNCHES” counter to zero.
If you missed it, the years-long beef between Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo boiled over, which led to the two of them throwing hay-makers. Brandon Ingram also got involved, as the entire ordeal started when he shoved James Harden and got into a referee’s face.
At the center of everything was the allegation that Rondo spit in Paul’s face, which led to the Rockets star putting his finger in the Lakers guard’s face. This led to Rondo throwing a punch, Paul retaliating, and Ingram flying in to throw his own punches. A video appeared to show Rondo spitting on Paul, and on Sunday, the league handed down suspensions to the three players.
The thing with the spitting allegation, though, is that the Lakers have stood behind Rondo, as he’s apparently told them he didn’t spit in Paul’s face. On Tuesday, Rondo gave his side of the story to ESPN and stressed that, despite video evidence, there was no intentional spitting.
“This is the only time I’m going to address this,” Rondo told ESPN. “I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘get the [expletive] out of here.’
“Look at my body language,” Rondo continued. “My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and [Carmelo Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction.”
The big thing here is that “I wasn’t trying to spit on him, I was trying to say get the f*ck out of here” is the most Rajon Rondo thing I have heard in my life.
Anyway, everyone involved in the fracas at Staples Center has a little free time to reflect on all of this thanks to their suspensions, but Ingram, Paul, and Rondo will all be on the floor barring something unforeseen when the two teams face off in Houston on Dec. 13.
(Via ESPN)
