The NBA has suspended three players – Raptors guards Fred VanVleet and DeAndre’ Bembry, along with Lakers guard Talen Horton-Tucker – for one game apiece, the league announced today in a press release.
The three players left the bench area during an on-court altercation during the Raptors/Lakers game on Tuesday (video link). After Dennis Schröder committed a foul on a OG Anunoby shot attempt, the two players got tangled up and Anunoby grabbed Schroder by the leg, flipping him to the ground. Players from both teams entered the fray at that point.
According to today’s announcement, Anunoby received a $30K fine for initiating the incident, while Lakers big man Montrezl Harrell has been docked $20K for aggressively entering the altercation and shoving Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, the one-game suspension will be costliest for VanVleet, who will forfeit $146,552 of his salary. Bembry ($11,980) and Horton-Tucker ($10,469) will also each lose one game’s worth of pay.
Horton-Tucker and Bembry will serve their suspensions tonight, while VanVleet will serve his one-game ban once he’s healthy and ready to return from his hip ailment.
Although they’ll be missing Horton-Tucker, and Kyle Kuzma is listed as questionable with calf tightness, the Lakers will get some reinforcements for Thursday’s contest vs. Miami, as head coach Frank Vogel said today that both Ben McLemore (protocols) and Andre Drummond (toe) will be available (Twitter link via Mike Trudell).
Oh how they have their little grudges against the raptors. Silver must be so enthused about this decision!
What heck was Anunoby doing. I understand the protocol about players leaving the bench, but Anunoby is really the only one at fault in this situation. A common foul and Schroder tries to help him then he just attacks Schroder.
So by your logic OG is a prototype of dirty Draymond?
The guys coming off the bench were almost fined more. The “combatants” just got mixed up, nobody got thrown or hit in the head.
So, what I’m reading is it will take me like 3 years to earn as much as vanvleet does for one game. Suddenly I’ve become very depressed….
When he was practicing jump shots in real life you were practicing them in 2k. He gets paid for his effort. You get to consume the product.
When VanVleet was practicing jump shots, most of us were studying, getting trained for a job or working, not playing 2K. He gets paid an absurd amount of money mainly because of his talent, not his effort (and that’s OK, we consume the product as you said).
It’s about supply & demand driving price, and a legal monopoly to control supply… not allegedly hard work.
It is hard work for professional athletes to stay in peak physical condition. The most difficult part for many of them is knowing that they won’t be making millions of dollars every year after they retire from sports. Put away most of those earnings in wise investments instead of blowing it all on frivolous things like fancy cars, jewelry, drugs, etc.