NBA fined Bull's Rajon Rondo $25,000
Chicago Bulls' starting point guard, Rajon Rondo, has been fined by the NBA an amount of $25,000 for an attempted trip to current rival, Boston Celtics' small forward, Jae Crowder.
The current president of the sports league, Kiki VanDeWeghe, announced after game 3 of Celtics and Bulls that the certain fine must be paid by Rondo for trying to trip Crowder on the first quarter of the game. Rondo was on the bench during the whole game because of a right thumb injury that occurred during the first round's second game. While on the Celtics' bench, Rondo stretched his right leg just when Crowder was passing on their bench, making it look like Crowder would have been tripped if Rondo stretched his leg right before Crowder passed in front of him.
On Friday night after the game, ESPN reported that Rondo denied any claims that said he was attempting to trip one of their rival team's player. During an interview, he mentioned that his knee injury in 2013, where he tore his ACL, had something to do with why he had to constantly stretch out his legs whenever he sits. He also added that he always stretch out his legs throughout the game and he thought the reason why people viewed it like he tried to trip Crowder was because was was so deep in the Celtics bench.
Celtics' small forward/shooting guard, Gerald Green said in another interview that Rondo's stretching excuse might be true but he further added that he could not really comment more about the incident. Some of the league's critics believed that Rondo got the consequence of his actions, through the fine that was imposed by the NBA.
Houston Rocket's Patrick Beverly also got a fine of the same amount because of a fan altercation that occurred during their third game first round matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was also reported that during postgame, Beverly had exchanged words with the fan which was the one incident the league specified the Rockets point guard was fined for.
