NBA Fines Lakers, Jackson $50,000 Each
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The Los Angeles Lakers and Phil Jackson were fined $50,000 apiece by the NBA yesterday after the coach said the league was conducting a “witch hunt” against Kobe Bryant.
Bryant recently received two one-game suspensions this season for striking players in the face after taking a shot. The league retroactively assessed Bryant with a flagrant foul for an elbow to Philadelphia’s Kyle Korver last week, a play that didn’t even draw a foul.
NBA executive vice president, Stu Jackson, said the fine was for Jackson’s “public criticisms of the NBA.”
“We’ve made our opinion clear and have been penalized by the league for doing so,” the Lakers general manager, Mitch Kupchak, said. “We have nothing more to say on this issue.”
Bryant, speaking in Denver before the fine was levied, said he appreciated Jackson standing up for him.
“He was defending his player,” Bryant said at a shootaround for a game against the Nuggets.
Jackson clearly was upset with the NBA’s actions.
“It shouldn’t even have been a flagrant 1,” Jackson said Tuesday. “That’s crazy. That’s a vendetta. They have a witch hunt going on. It’s nuts. Guys riding somebody. Everybody does that in this league. It’s just becoming a witch hunt now.” Bryant said the suspensions won’t change his shooting style.
