NOW they suspend somebody?
Posted May 2nd, 2008 by Pat McManamon
In this Wizards-Cavaliers series we've seen LeBron James twice get knocked down going in for a layup in Game 1, then responding with an elbow to the jaw of Andray Blatche. We've seen Brendan Haywood push James when he was in the air, a play that probably was the most dangerous in the series. We've seen Anderson Varejao take a swing at Blatche's head while ostensibly going for the ball. We've also seen DeShawn Stevenson take a wilder swing at James' head, a move that was outright dirty. And we've seen Stevenson be suspended $25,000 for a throat slash gesture in Game 4.
After all that the NBA decides to suspend Darius Songaila for this technical foul:
Note, though, that announcers Marv Albert and Reggie Miller both were adamant that Songaila's actions were deliberate and not, as Songaila said, accidental. Still, it didn't compare with this from Stevenson:
Or this from Haywood:
Why the suspension? According to my esteemed colleague Brian Windhorst and the Washington Post, the NBA made it clear to the teams that any more nastiness would lead to an automatic suspension. Apparently, the league thought long and hard about suspending Stevenson after Game 4, but chose not to. Instead it said any more rough play would be automatic suspension.
So the first Wizard is suspended. It's not the worst that's happened in this series; it might in fact be the most "innocent" of the hard fouls (is that an oxymoron?). But it came after warning from the league. So Washington's depth on the front line is affected.
By the way, if you didn't hear what Reggie Miller had to say about Stevenson doing his face-wave thing down 16 in Game 1, here it is:
