The NBA handed down punishments on Wednesday for the bizarre incident involving members of the Rockets storming the Clippers’ locker room via a back hallway in an effort to confront Blake Griffin and Austin Rivers.
In the league’s investigation into the matter, in which they interviewed 20 witnesses, they found that Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green were the ones aggressively entering the locker room and looking to escalate the situation, while Chris Paul and James Harden were serving as peacemakers. Because of that, Ariza and Green were each handed two-game suspensions by the league, and everyone else walked away from the very strange story without any punishment.
While that would seem to make sense, the Rockets aren’t pleased. That’s not because they don’t think Ariza and Green should’ve been punished, but there are many in the Rockets organization that are reportedly “disappointed” the league did nothing to punish Griffin and/or Rivers for their role in antagonizing Ariza on the court.
Via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon:
The Rockets are upset that Griffin and Rivers weren’t disciplined for their roles in the events that led to Ariza’s anger escalating to the point that he stormed into the Clippers’ locker room to confront them.
The Rockets are adamant that Griffin intentionally made contact with Mike D’Antoni late in the fourth quarter, moments before a heated confrontation between the Houston coach and the Clippers star forward.
…
According to Rockets sources, Rivers continued the profane trash talk after the game, yelling loudly enough in the Clippers’ locker room for Ariza to hear him from the hallway, where players commonly congregate and visiting teams frequently put food and equipment. Sources said those insults, including calling Ariza out by name, caused Ariza’s anger to mount.
The situation involving Griffin and D’Antoni is bizarre, and could warrant the league investigating that incident on its own as a player and opposing coach getting into it would seem to be something the NBA would very much want to avoid. However, in terms of Griffin’s interactions with Ariza, he was already ejected from the game (along with Ariza) which would indicate that he did get his worthy punishment.
With regards to Rivers, you can debate whether guys in street clothes should be talking trash or whether he crossed the line and deserved to have someone come at him, but the league has never really fined players for trash-talking other players, so long as they aren’t using derogatory slurs. So, for the Rockets to think Rivers purposefully talking loudly enough so Ariza could hear was worthy of a fine or suspension seems like a reach.
There’s a pretty big difference in intent between talking loudly so someone hears what you’re saying about them and running into the opposing team’s locker room to confront them. Whether Ariza and Green’s anger was warranted or not, as far as the league stands their actions had the possibility of sparking something far more dangerous and detrimental to the league than Rivers’ comments, which is why they have suspensions and he doesn’t.
