NBA Suspends Houston Rockets' Trevor Ariza, Gerald Green Following Altercation With LA Clippers
NBA officials have suspended Houston Rockets players Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green due to altercations that occurred during and after the team's matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers.
NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Kiki VanDeWeghe confirmed the news in an official statement. The players were sanctioned "for entering the Los Angeles Clippers' locker room to confront a player from the opposing team."
League officials also confirmed that they had conducted at least 20 interviews with players and staff from both teams as well as arena personnel before arriving at the decision. Their investigation concluded that the sanctioned players went straight to the Clippers' locker room after the game and "engaged in a hostile, verbal altercation" with some of the players there.
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Meanwhile, the Rockets' James Harden and Chris Paul were not penalized as the officials determined that they followed their teammates to the vicinity of the Clippers locker room to try and break the tension. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, VanDeWeghe confirmed that Harden and Paul had tried to be "peacemakers" during the heated situation.
The tension sparked at the close of Monday night's game where the Clippers won, 113-102.
Ariza and Green will miss their team's next two games against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday and the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, without pay. NBA reporter Bobby Marks estimated Ariza and Green would lose $51,178 and $9,527, respectively, per game.
"The league's investigation further concluded that Rockets players, James Harden and Chris Paul, followed Ariza and Green into the corridor outside the locker room in an effort to defuse the situation, and accordingly, discipline is not warranted," NBA said in the official statement.
Meanwhile, although the Clippers' Blake Griffin was earlier ejected from the game, he was not penalized for the altercation and neither were other members of his team.
Before the locker room confrontation, Griffin and Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni appeared to have clashed just before the game ended. It seemed the Clippers player had bumped into D'Antoni who has having a conversation with a game official at the time.
Later, Ariza and Griffin clashed, which resulted to them getting kicked out of the court shortly before game time was over.
