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After a fight between Scotty Pippen Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies and Myron Gardner of the Miami Heat, the NBA has announced punishments.
The NBA has announced punishments for a recent brawl between the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies stemming from Scotty Pippen Jr. and Myron Gardner.
In a somewhat surprising move, the league has chosen to simply fine the two players $35,000 each for their actions in the brawl, which led to benches of both teams clearing as the scuffle entered the first few rows of the crowd in the Kesaya Center in Miami.
“Memphis Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. and Miami Heat forward Myron Gardner have each been fined $35,000 for their roles in an on-court altercation,” the NBA wrote in a statement.
The punishment by the league is considered unexpected because another recent brawl, between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets, led to the suspensions of four different players for a combined 17 games.
NBA Announces Punishments For Heat-Grizzlies Fight
The lead-up to the fight that was highlighted by both Pippen’s and Gardner’s actions came over the course of a few plays.
“The start of the sequence seemed to happen on the play before. Pippen and Gardner were fighting for a defensive rebound after a missed Simone Fontecchio three-point shot. Gardner put his shoulder into Pippen’s shoulder/forearm, and Pippen took his right arm to toss Gardner out of the way. Gardner ended up on the baseline under the basket on his backside,” Paul Kasabian wrote for Bleacher Report.
“Pippen [then] shot (and made) a three-pointer with just over two minutes left in the game. As the ball was going in (about two seconds after the initial attempt), Gardner jogged into Pippen and knocked him down from behind.”
That hit by Gardner on Pippen then resulted in the latter running up to the Grizzlies wing, pushing him and instigating the full-blown brawl.
Players and coaches from both Miami and Memphis entered the court from the benches to calm the fight. Both Pippen and Gardner were ejected for their actions and have now been fined $35,000 by the NBA.
NBA Fights And Suspensions This Season
As mentioned, the fight between the Heat and Grizzlies was not the first, or even most notable, NBA brawl this season. After a back-and-forth between the Pistons and Hornets, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabate were all suspended multiple games for their actions in a game before the All-Star Break.
While Charlotte’s Bridges and Diabate each received four-game suspensions for their actions, Duren got two games, and Stewart got the biggest, a seven-game suspension. ‘Beef Stew’ got the seven games for coming off the bench and involving himself in the fight, but he is by no means new to the NBA fight game, as he consistently finds himself in hot water with the league.
Previously, Jose Alvarado and Mark Williams were also suspended for two games each for a fight earlier in the season.
Additionally, Dennis Schroder was suspended for three games in December for allegedly attempting to strike Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers after a game. The two were jawing back and forth during the contest, and in the tunnels of the arena, Schroder allegedly sought out Doncic and attempted to start an altercation with the Slovenian.
Only giving out fines, small ones, albeit considering their NBA contracts for Pippen and Garnder, perhaps the NBA is changing its stance on fighting as a whole. Stewart’s seven-game suspension has been the longest for an on-court fight in recent NBA memory, but aside from him, the league had previously been more strict on dishing out punishments for brawls.
Eli Gregorski is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski
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