12:55pm: The Pacers have issued a press release officially confirming Foster’s suspension and the fine for Bitadze.
11:32am: The Pacers are suspending assistant coach Greg Foster for one game and fining center Goga Bitadze for a heated altercation during Wednesday’s home loss to Sacramento, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Foster, who had to be held back by Myles Turner, was believed to be upset by Bitadze’s lack of resistance on a Maurice Harkless dunk, as Matthew VanTryon of The Indianapolis Star details. Following that Harkless dunk, Bitadze responded by hitting a three-pointer and appeared to tell Foster to “sit the f— down,” which led to the altercation on the sidelines (video link via J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star).
The incident was the latest indication that the struggling Pacers are frustrated and feeling a little frayed at the edges. In the wake of multiple reports suggesting his job could be in jeopardy, Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren spoke before last night’s game about the importance of communicating with his players and sticking together during a rough stretch, per VanTryon. After the game, Bjorkgren – who said he had talked to both Foster and Bitadze – downplayed the incident but hinted he wasn’t quite ready to close the book on it.
“I’m going to find out exactly what was said and in what way,” Bjorkgren told reporters on Wednesday night. “They’re both trying so hard. They’re both competitive. They both want what’s best for the team, and it didn’t happen that way. It boiled over a little bit.”
According to Wojnarowski, Foster and Bitadze have had a “strong working relationship” this season, and the Pacers expect that to continue going forward.
If one of your assistants gets told to sit the f— down by a backup role player, you’ve clearly lost the team. I know they’ve had some injuries but they should have a better record. I think Bjork gets canned after the season.
B I N G O
Get rid of this Foster dude, he has no idea what he is talkin’ ’bout, like at all!
I do like Bitadze, he needs more playin’ time!
If that’s how it happened I don’t blame foster at all. You don’t tell any of your coaches to “sit the F down” that’s crazy. Coach needs to back his assistant on this one and let Goga take a few games off.
Any coach shouldn’t be showing a player up like that during a game, he treated Goga like a 12 year old and got a grown man response he didn’t like.
I will bet you this is a culmination of longterm bullying by an egomaniac coach – its not on the player here at all. Coaches out of everyone must remain professional within their work environment, period.
I assume you are being sarcastic here…or you are under 18 years old
I guarantee this comes from the players seeing the head coach telling an assistant – or even this particular assistant – to “sit the f*ck down” a couple times (at least) this season.
A player doesn’t just do that type of disrespect out of nowhere.
Bitadze gave terrible effort on defense, then hit a meaningless three pointer, and then told off his coach, who was getting on him for his terrible effort on defense. All while getting blown out by the KINGS. Bitadze is a fool.
Foster will be unemployed about 4 minutes. Dude is a big man development wizard. Worked with Embid, worked with Giannis, worked with Sabonis this year.
Just curious if Foster bothered to also yell at the Pacers player who got blown by initially, by Harkless, out on the perimeter, before Bitadze had a chance to slide over and help out?
Foster is from Oakland and I if I am remembering correctly played in College at UTEP with Tim Hardaway. He was a backup Big Man in the NBA during the 1990s.
Players get blown by all the time. It’s not the result Foster was mad at, it was Bitadze’s awful effort.
Foster coming in hard with the big boomer egomaniacal psychopath energy – the NBA needs to get rid of so many of its coaches who are exactly like this clown, they’re a plague on society let alone the NBA.
You just described Draymond Green. Seems to have worked out well for the Warriors and last I checked he’s not a boomer. The real plague on society is not boomers, but the entitlement that comes from the younger generations.
The real problem comes from people that generalize age groups instead of taking circumstances into account. I have little inclination to take either side here, as we do not know the whole story. This seems like a case where frustration boiled over, given that Indiana was already getting destroyed by Sacramento
I’m surprised he didnt start talking about how well Goga would do in G State
There is no need to assume bad blood. The main thing for Bjorkgren to find out, if he didn’t know already, is that Georgians, and Caucasusians in general, are not uncomfortable with conflict. Hate to get ethnic but this is a short regular debate for a Georgian— let’s not dump (on) him. Or, if the Pacers will… jump on it Cavs! In time, it might make up for tossing Porter.
This was Bitadze’s first game back in a while, and with Turner & Warren going to be out for a stretch, Bitadze might be thinking, it is time for the coaches to get more used to Bitadze and not so much a low-minutes backup.
I’m sure the 6-10 250 Georgian would agree, it was not a good look, probably part of the tension. Just emote, slap him on his butt and put him back in there. Likely all the Pacers get it.
Decent improving numbers, and they should work the kinks out.
Boy was I wrong about Bjorkgren. Dude is *terrible* at coaching.