Dwight Howard fined $35,000 over NBA playoffs comments on his blog
Dwight Howard is one frustrated man. After leading the Orlando Magic to the playoffs, Howard spent most of the opening series against Charlotte watching from the bench in foul trouble. In the four game series, he was whistled for 22 fouls and fouled out of games twice. Fortunately for the Magic, they were still able to win but Howard is still complaining about his treatment from the referees and that has landed him in the trouble from the league.
Howard has been fined for $35,000 over comments he posted on his personal blog about the opening round of the NBA playoffs. Here is the excerpt from what he wrote on the blog that the league didn’t like:
“Ya’ll know that that series against Charlotte drove me crazy. I mean it was almost comical at times how I was getting fouls called on me. There was nothing I could do out there and I felt like I couldn’t even move without getting that whistle blown on me .I’m not looking to say anything to get myself in trouble with the league, but I just don’t see other star players getting called for fouls the way I get them. No star player in the league is outta games the way I am. I even talked to Pat Ewing about his career and he said he never had foul trouble like what I’m going through.”
The National Basketball Association has explicit rules barring players and coaches from criticizing officials after games. Before Howard was fined, his coach Stan Van Gundy and teammate Matt Barnes were fined by the league for criticizing the officials in the Charlotte series as well. They too, complained about how Howard was being singled out for physical play. NBA Commissioner David Stern has made it clear that he is tired of hearing players and coaches denigrate the officiating in the league and says he will have zero tolerance for violating the league policy.
Howard has won back to back NBA defensive player of the year awards and says he didn’t do anything different in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. His nickname is “Superman” for being able to shut down the games best players but against Charlotte it was hard to play defense when he couldn’t stay on the court. Howard says he hopes the next series against either Milwaukee or Atlanta will be different. He tells his fans on his blog he is just going to “chill” the next few days and he says “I’ll be ready for the next round, make some changes and take out my frustration on whoever we play next.”
Orlando coach Stan van Gundy says he plans to sit down and discuss with Howard ways to stay out of foul trouble before the second round of the playoffs start. He believes Howard has to take some responsibility for his foul troubles and says they will have a video session to watch the fouls that were called on him during the Charlotte series and learn from the tape. Stan van Gundy knows that if Orlando is going to advance to the third round of the playoffs they need Howard to average more than 27 minutes per game as he did during the series against Charlotte. Whether Orlando faces Atlanta or Milwaukee, they are going to need Howard’s presence in the middle to keep the Hawks or Bucks off the glass. Howard jokes that his new nickname is “foul on you” trying to make light of the situation which clearly has him frustrated, a little time off may be just the answer to give him time to clear his head.
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