Not easily forgotten
League to investigate events that led 4 Rockets to enter Clippers’ sanctum
LOS ANGELES — There might not have been a secret passage behind a Staples Center bookcase. The “Mission: Impossible” music did not play. But the NBA will have its hands full as it begins to sort out the actual events, rather than the social media depictions, of the Rockets’ in-game and postgame actions against the Clippers on Monday night.
That undoubtedly will include what sort of punishments the league will dole out.
As the NBA began its investigation into the mad series of events during and after the Rockets’ emotional 113-102 loss to the Clippers, with the initial
calls coming before the Rockets left Staples Center, the expectation was that answers will not come quickly.
This is understandable. There is a lot to investigate after a crazy night of intense feelings, angry shouts, a confrontation between a coach and star player, and, ultimately, a covert infiltration of the Clippers’
locker room.
When league officials finish conducting interviews with players, coaches, staff, officials, security and other witnesses, they will have to decide if their last word will be suspensions, particularly of the Rockets who invaded the Clippers’ locker room through a back corridor.
For all the jokes that have come from the image of Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza, James Harden and Gerald Green going into L.A.’s sanctum through a hallway that connects Staples Center rooms (which is anything but secret), the NBA might struggle to find the humor or to just leave it at Mike D’Antoni’s “boys will be boys.”
The Rockets contend that while Ariza was angry, he did not intend to take on the Clippers in their locker room and that the others followed to make sure the situation did not escalate. And a person with knowledge of the situation said Clint Capela did not knock on any Clippers door.
There is little precedent for the NBA to consider.
The most famous hallway confrontation happened in Staples Center in 2002 when the Lakers’ Rick Fox and Kings’ Doug Christie squared off, but that escalated into on-court and hallway violence, with Fox receiving a suspension of six games, Christie two.
In 2012, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony shouted at the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett in a Madison Square Garden hallway, then tried to confront Garnett at the bus. Anthony was suspended for one game, with former NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson saying, “There are no circumstances in which it is acceptable for a player to confront an opponent after a game.”
In 2016, Matt Barnes, then with Memphis, was suspended for one game for entering Milwaukee’s locker room after a confrontation with the Bucks’ John Henson.
But last season, the NBA took no action after Ariza waited in a hallway in Dallas for Mavericks center Salah Mejri. Nothing escalated that night, with Mejri staying out of sight until Ariza and the Rockets players who waited with him headed for the bus.
Nothing came of Monday’s invasion of the Clippers’ locker room, so the NBA will have to weigh whether to follow last season’s no-harm, no-foul precedent or treat Monday’s incident as a repeat violation.
Rotation implications
With the Rockets expecting to be back at full strength after a run of injuries, with Harden hoping to return as soon as Thursday’s home game against the Timberwolves, they now must wait to see if the NBA will bench a chunk of their rotation, potentially including their two stars.
The Rockets offered little about the incident after the game.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Green said. “I’m just worried about how my team goes down.”
The locker room episode was just the final act. Along the way, a nearly as odd confrontation saw Clippers star Blake Griffin apparently run into D’Antoni on purpose, an act also likely to bring NBA questions.
After the Clippers’ Wesley Johnson blocked a shot by Eric Gordon with 3:42 left — the Rockets believed it was goaltending — Griffin headed upcourt pointing, then shouting, then demonstrably pointing again at D’Antoni. He brushed against D’Antoni as he ran past, though D’Antoni clearly stood out of bounds.
Moments later, Paul fouled Griffin, and Paul and Luc Mbah a Moute were infuriated that the call was considered a shooting foul, rushing toward official Michael Smith and D’Antoni. As the teams gathered, Griffin and D’Antoni shouted at one another, with Paul joining in. D’Antoni and Griffin were given technical fouls.
Asked what he said to Griffin, D’Antoni replied: “You mean after he hit me?
“I didn’t appreciate it,” D’Antoni said. “It’s good. We’re good. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.”
Griffin said he repeated what D’Antoni said to him. Paul said he did not know just what he said, leaving it to lip readers to decipher, but said, “Whatever it is, I’m sure my mom will tell me to wash my mouth.
“Coach told me he elbowed him,” Paul said. “I saw him talking crazy to Coach. I’m always going to have Coach’s back.”
The Rockets and Clippers might need plenty of soap. Minutes later, while falling out of bounds, Griffin fired a fastball off Gordon. Finally, with Ariza and injured Clippers guard Austin Rivers trading shouts, Griffin walked to Ariza, and they earned double technical fouls, Griffin’s second, with both getting ejected.
“I just saw somebody coming to me aggressively,” Ariza said. “I’m going to defend myself.”
But that was not all. Players then turned to social media. Pat Beverley, traded to the Clippers in the deal for Paul, tweeted, “It’s a different culture here in LA. No more soft … here.” Griffin tweeted a shot of the Joker from “Batman.”
Morey weighs in
Even Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted a picture of former player Paul Pierce, known as “The Truth,” with a message: “Still putting on his shoes.” That was likely a reference to an expression attributed to Mark Twain: “A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
The truth Morey had in mind might have been as simple as there is no secret passageway in the bowels of Staples Center. The NBA will endeavor to find out the truth of the events of the evening.
“They were talking crazy throughout the game,” Gordon said. “Yeah, they were playing well. We just didn’t like how it ended. The refs let them talk crazy until something had to happen. We’re not going to stand by with somebody out there like that. Blake Griffin, he’s talking crazy. All those guys were talking big.
“Things happen. We’re going to remember it, though.”
They won’t be the only ones.