For those who were concerned, Steph Curry will not be suspended for stepping away from the bench in a preseason game between the Lakers and Warriors Friday night. During the game, Lance Stephenson drove to the basket and swung his arm towards Quinn Cook at the end of the play. Cook and Stephenson briefly stepped towards each other before refs and teammates stepped in. Cook walked away while Stephenson was ejected for his actions.
The play itself was pretty tame, but it did create a small moment of interest. During the dust up, Curry and DeMarcus Cousins briefly stepped away from the bench area and onto the court. They didn’t get involved in the play, but them stepping towards Cook and Stephenson could be seen as leaving the bench during an altercation, which is an automatic suspension by the NBA.
However, Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reports that Curry and Cousins are safe and will not be punished because, apparently, the league is not considering what happened between Cook and Stephenson to be an altercation.
A player who is not currently in the game is typically assessed a one-game suspension for leaving the immediate vicinity of the bench when an altercation ensues in live action.
The two stars will not be reprimanded because the league did not deem the activity of Lakers guard Lance Stephenson and Warriors guard Quinn Cook as being an “altercation,” sources said.
Had Curry been suspended he would not have been able to play in the season opener on Tuesday night where the Warriors will receive their championship rings and raise their third banner in four years. That would have been a little awkward. Luckily, Curry will play and the NBA will avoid the PR headache a suspension of Curry in the season opener would have caused.
There was a time where the NBA was harsh enough about this rule that they would have suspended Curry on the spot, but the rule has become more lenient over the years. The rule has had its intended effect as brawls have been curtailed and players know to not run on the court. That’s what the NBA wants and it would be be unnecessary to punish two players that really had no involvement in the play.
