The NBA Development League on Tuesday suspended Houston Rockets forward Montrezl Harrell, now on assignment with the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers, five games without pay for pushing an official to the floor during a post-game altercation with Bakersfield Jam forward Derek Cooke Jr., a move that the union representing referees has called "a deliberate assault and battery" against the ref.
Cooke, an undrafted forward out of Wyoming, received a one-game ban for pushing Harrell during the fracas.
The incident occurred following Saturday's game between the Vipers, the Rockets' D-League affiliate, and the Jam, the Phoenix Suns' affiliate. After the Jam finished off a 119-115 win behind 62 points from the duo of Askia Booker and Terrico White, Harrell, whom Houston drafted out of Louisville with the second pick of the second round of the 2015 NBA draft, found himself face to face with Cooke, an undrafted forward out of Wyoming, who had grabbed the rebound on the final shot of the game right in front of Harrell.
The two big men jawed for a moment, and then Cooke shoved Harrell backward. Referee Jason Goldenberg stepped in front of Harrell to prevent him from retaliating; Harrell promptly deposited him on the deck. Cooler heads soon prevailed, as Cooke was escorted off the court, the players dispersed and everyone headed their separate ways. Harrell finished with 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 13 rebounds and two assists in 39 minutes. Cooke scored three points with nine rebounds and a block in 24 minutes for the winners.
Harrell declined to speak to media after the game, according to Dennis Silva II of The Monitor:
“I haven’t seen the video, but I saw Montrezl and someone get into it,” Vipers coach Matt Brase said. “I saw Montrezl get pushed. We’ll look at it and see what really happened.”
The game consisted of 67 combined fouls and seven combined technical fouls. The Vipers had 29 personal fouls and four of those technical fouls.
“Obviously, when there’s a lot of fouls in a game there’s a lot of contact,” Brase said. “It was physical, emotional. They had gotten knocked out of the playoffs and they want revenge, but I didn’t think anything was dirty. It was more talk than anything.”
That's not how the National Basketball Referees Association saw it, though. The referees union issued an official comment on the matter on Monday:
“After carefully reviewing videotape and related evidence concerning this incident, we have reached the inescapable conclusion that Harrell committed a deliberate assault and battery against Referee Goldenberg. Anything less than a multiple game suspension would constitute a green light for violence against officials,” said Lee Seham, NBRA general counsel.
"Deliberate assault and battery" seems a bit excessive, given the context; this looks more like "I want to hit that dude and I'm throwing anyone who gets in my way out of it to make that happen" than "Finally, my opportunity to exact revenge on this ref who called a bunch of fouls tonight." That said, you can certainly understand the NBA and D-League feeling the need to send a message that physical contact with officials is totally unacceptable. Hence the hefty penalty for Harrell, who has made 38 appearances for Houston and 12 with the Vipers this season.
Harrell's suspension starts Tuesday, when Rio Grande Valley takes on the Oklahoma City Blue, the Oklahoma City Thunder's D-League affiliate. He will miss the remainder of the Vipers' three-game regular season slate, as well as the first two games of Rio Grande Valley's run in the D-League playoffs.
More interestingly, Houston can't recall Harrell, who has averaged 3.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in 9.8 minutes per game for the Rockets this season, until he has completed the full five-game suspension in the D-League. The Rockets have eight games left, and currently sit in eighth place in the Western Conference playoff race despite having the same record (36-38) as the Dallas Mavericks by virtue of owning a 2-1 edge in their head-to-head season series and a superior record in their division.
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