Dwight Howard suspended for tonight's game against the Heat

I'm sure the ruling works identical to players fighting. You get a technical and the automatic one-game suspension for a punch. Similarly, lessor contact with a ref is ruled an auto-suspension. The technical is the in-game penalty.

You can argue that Howard swatting away the arm of the official shouldn't warrant the automatic suspension. But let's keep that separate from the fact technical fouls and automatic suspensions can happen on the same play.

 

God, this is infuriating.

 

The refs' documentation noted that the second tech was given for the Nene push so yeah, they changed their story just like cops do sometimes to harshen the punishment.

 

Oh no.... Whiteside will rape us again

 

Whiteside is out for tonight. Amare is playing C.

 

Did Howard apologize to the Ref, like Budenholzer did? Maybe he should have.

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In a statement released Monday night, Budenholzer said he has issued an apology to Taylor.

"With the league's permission, I have reached out to and apologized to Ben Taylor for what happened in the game versus Cleveland," Budenholzer said. "Ben is an excellent young referee who is a valuable member of the NBA family. We all understand that any contact -- including incidental contact -- with an official is unacceptable. I accept the NBA's fine and look forward to putting this situation in the past."
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Bud's contact was clearing incidental and unintentional. Howard's swat was petulant, and something players can definitely avoid doing.

 

I really this suspension... its bullsh.t of the highest order. Every fight etc...always have players that try to separate the two angry parties. In this case, Dwight and Nene were jawing back and forth and the black ref tried keeping Dwight from approaching Nene. Dwight swipes his hand down, and the white ref seeing that action quickly assess Dwight's second technical.

They ejected Dwight from a game...a game which needed his presence AND they lost. That first tech was BS...the second tech was legit and well deserved. But Dwight paid for that mistake by NOT being able to finish the game. Why in the heck would the league suspend Dwight for essentially a 2nd game? The player's union should have Dwight's back on this one.

 

lol at bud's groveling plea for a merciful pardon. this league is a f'n joke :grin:

 

It's extremely clear from the video that Dwight was given the T for slapping the refs arm. There's no way to argue otherwise. If it was for the Nene push, then refs would have either issued it immediately or conferenced and then given him the T.

When Dwight slapped, the other ref immediately responded without consulting with anyone.

The Rockets have been punished the last two games for reacting. That's the players own fault....they should have kept their cool. But if the refs had been doing their jobs, it never would have come to that. Mainly, the way Dwight is being officiated has to change.

 

Source?

 

It should read

Dwight Howard suspended for being dumb!

 

OK, what is the prop bets on:

1. Number of times Amare armbars and grabs at Howard?
2. Technicals called Howard?

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Whiteside out tonight.</p>&mdash; Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) <a href="https://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat/status/694574659451252736">February 2, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Being dumb and reacting to someone literally beating on you are 2 different things. Maybe you do some research

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rockets have saved $725k in tax penalties with the Lawson and Howard suspensions this year.</p>&mdash; Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/694571294017323012">February 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

The refs probably would've ejected Howard tonight anyways so maybe this is just saving everyone some time

 

The referees have a union as well -- one which complained heavily for suspending Budenholzer in Nov for unintentional contact with a referee. Bud was fined but not suspended, though. I'm sure they demanded Howard's contact warrant an automatic suspension as well.

I know you're frustrated. I'm just saying that auto-suspensions have nothing to do with whether or not an in-game penalty was assessed for the same play, as well.

You made your point that swiping the arm of the ref was not worthy of an auto-suspension. That's similar to arguing that a player did or did not throw a punch in a player fight.

 

When did he touch the ref?

 

Just a matter time.

 

Man, I knew the nba was bull****, but this is just getting comical at this point... Imagine if Dwight played in 100% of the games, he'd have like 40 techs by now.