NBA Suspends Former Duke Star Brandon Ingram

Absolutely no surprise here: after the fight in LA between various Rockets and Lakers, the NBA has suspended Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo and former Duke star Brandon Ingram.

Ingram got the worst of it with four games. Kiki VanDeWeghe (he used to spell it Vandeweghe and apparently most of his family still does, but he’s the NBA’s vice president of basketball operations so a fancy schmancy name can’t hurt when you’re handing out penalties. Just kidding - actually he changed it back to how his grandfather, Ernest Maurice VanDeWeghe, spelled it. Kiki is Ernest Maurice III and father of Ernest Maurice IV, who will one day cry out, “this ends with me!”).

Here’s what Herr VanDeWeghe had to say about this weekend’s brawl and especially Ingram’s role in it:

“And then with Brandon, again, we looked at the whole incident. There was the push on [James] Harden. There was the confrontation with [official] Jason Phillips in very tight quarters. And then there was a period when he walked away and he was pushed away and taken away. When things started up again, he came back in extremely aggressively and then threw a very aggressive punch to somebody who wasn’t looking. That’s a very dangerous play. I think we made it clear in the strongest terms that that was a dangerous play and it’s completely unacceptable.”

He’s right of course. The NBA has three great examples to look to: the 1977 Finals fight between Portland and Philly, the Kermit Washington destruction of Rudy Tomjanovich’s face in 1977 and the Malice in the Palace in 2004.

The Washington punch was very nearly fatal and Tomjanovich was lucky to live let alone play again.

Actually if you’ve never seen it, go watch. It’s grainy but if you ever wondered what happens when you run full speed into a muscle-bound man’s wrist, there’s your answer.