I wasn’t shocked that the Rockets received suspensions from the incident in Los Angeles Monday night, but it was surprising that Blake Griffin received no punishment at all for targeting coach Mike D’Antoni and bumping him on the way up the floor.
Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, claimed that the contact was “minimal” and that Griffin was inbounds while D’Antoni was right on the line.
The Rockets believe VanDeWeghe got this wrong, feeling the move was intentional. Now looking at Griffin’s history, it’s even more surprising that VanDeWeghe didn’t act.
Former coach-turned-broadcaster Mark Jackson made a strong case Wednesday night that there should have been some kind of league response, showing that Griffin has a history of doing this when he pulled a similar move on Jackson in October of 2013.
Jackson called it a “bush league move.”
“I don’t care what angle you have,” says Jackson. “Clearly he points to D’Antoni, heads that direction and brushes him. There is no place in the league for that.”