The NBA announced today that Jose Alvarado has been suspended for two games without pay for his role in Saturday night’s fight during the Pelicans‘ game against the Suns (Twitter link). Suns center Mark Williams has been suspended for one game.
Both players were ejected during the third quarter of the game after a hard foul from the Pelicans guard led to Williams shoving Alvarado, leading to an altercation between the two players.
ESPN Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter) that the suspensions will cost Alvarado approximately $62K and Williams approximately $36K. Alvarado will lose 2/145ths of his $4.5MM salary as a result of his multi-game suspension, while Williams forfeits just 1/174th of his $6.3MM salary for the one-game ban.
The Suns ultimately won Saturday’s game by a score of 123-114 behind 20 points from Devin Booker.
Alvarado will miss games on Monday against the Knicks and Wednesday against the Bulls, while Williams will miss the Suns’ Monday night contest against the Wizards.
Pretty weak to suspend Williams, he tried to get Alvardo off him. Is it because he is a center he should just let a little guy grab him and swing?
It wasn’t even a fight. More like pillow fighting
3 to 5 games should have been the right punishment for Alvarado.
He’s a repeat offender, he always does the instigation.
Suspending Williams is super weak by the league
Is there an echo in here? You do the crime you do the time. Zero toleranc.
Yep. Saying Alvarado “instigated” the fight is just incorrect. He definitely escalated the situation but he didn’t start an argument with the intention of fighting. Williams very easily could have stepped away after the whistle. Instead he decided to jaw at GTA.
Seems fair to give Williams 1 and Jose 2.
Bro what? I think you need to google the word instigation if you don’t think that Alvarado started that.
I think you need to get outside more. Go watch the video again and ask yourself why GTA suddenly turned around to walk back to Williams. I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t because he said Alvarado is really good at basketball…