10:09am: There will be “no shortage of punished individuals” as a result of the NBA’s investigation into last night’s incident in Los Angeles, tweets Wojnarowski. That investigation began late last night and continues into today.
8:26am: Chris Paul‘s return to Los Angeles took an unexpected turn on Monday night after the Clippers beat the Rockets in a testy contest that featured multiple ejections. As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports, tensions boiled over after game, with a handful of Rockets players looking to confront Austin Rivers and Blake Griffin in the Clippers’ locker room.
According to Wojnarowski, Paul, James Harden, Trevor Ariza, and Gerald Green walked through a back hallway to reach the Clippers’ locker room, where several L.A. players “dared the Rockets to come farther into the room.” However, security and team officials quickly stepped in and pushed the Rockets back toward their locker room, per Wojnarowski.
Sources tell Wojnarowski that the Rockets were upset with Rivers, who was described as “especially belligerent” during the late stages of the Clippers’ win, despite standing on the sideline in street clothes (he’s still recovering from an ankle injury). Griffin was also involved in confrontations with Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni and Ariza during the game, leading to his ejection.
While the details of Wojnarowski’s report are bizarre and fascinating, it appears the locker-room incident didn’t escalate beyond some shouting. “It was classic NBA,” one Clipper witness told Woj. “None of these guys were going to fight.”
Nonetheless, the NBA intends to investigate the matter and will begin to gather information on Tuesday, Wojnarowski writes. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the league announces fines and/or suspensions at some point this week, with the Rockets seemingly likely to be hit with harsher penalties.
Austin Rivers is a scum bag
You misspelled Chris Paul
Classic Chris Paul leadership. Each of the Rockets who went to the Clippers locker room should be suspended 5 games,
all at the same time. MLK day and they want to fight????? Smh
Agreed. We all know why CP3 left now. Can’t wait for next game!
Don’t forget CP3 took them through a secret passageway he knew about to the Clippers locker room. I’d say suspend the Rockets players, but since it’s Blake Griffin and Austin Rivers starting it (Griffin shoved Mike D ‘Antoni, Intentionally?), they should drop it and see what happens in round 2.
It is t a “secret passageway”. It’s a hallway that’s used a lot by players that are friends and talk after the game. The fact they’ve used this secret entrance thing is so overblown and ridiculous.
What I find humorous about this is DeAndre Jordan says he wants traded to the Rockets. I just read the article. It said Blake Griffin showed it to CP3 his first year in L.A. Said it connected the 2 locker rooms. Twitter was making fun of it today.
It’s not a secret any more.
I heard if you go to the last set of lockers and change all the combinations to 0-0-0, the lockers slide into the floor and reveal a magical hallway.
CP3 is a failure.
How so
I’d take that ‘failure’ on my team any day.
If CP3 is a failure then what is Austin Rivers? A trust fund?
Austin Rivers isn’t even a good basketball player. His daddy is protecting him too damn much.
If he wasn’t with daddy, he wouldn’t have done this. Daddy gave him everything no one elae would. Obviously CP3 and DeAndre Jordan don’t like it.
How many championships has CP3 won? He knew the hallways from his time there, so he Gould get an extra game. He usually missss about half the season with injury anyways. I’ve always like Paul but between him and B. Griffin? You can have them and all heir drama
My pet peeve is when an article references a person by last name only, when multiple people in the story have that last name. It took me a while to realize it was not Doc Rivers that was “especially belligerent.”
We usually try to keep including first names throughout the story if multiple people with the same last name are involved (Doc wasn’t mentioned in this post).