Dahntay Jones is on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster essentially just for the sake of bugging other teams.
After Jones came off the bench for the Cavs in last year’s playoffs, Cleveland signed the 36-year-old wing on the last day of this 2016-17 season as a playoff reinforcement (and provocateur).
In Game 1 of the Cavs’ series against the Raptors on Monday, Jones made his presence felt in a distinctly Dahntay Jones way—by picking up two technical fouls in a matter of moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7GqXjJp00
Jones was credited with three minutes played, 1-for-1 shooting, 2 points, and two technical fouls.
Obviously Jones getting ejected with 18.7 seconds remaining in a blowout victory was no big deal for the Cavs. But there was some fallout for Jones. He was fined $3,000 per technical, or $6,000 total. That doesn’t sound like much for an NBA player, except that his total season salary was only $9,000, since he was signed on the last day of the season.
Dahntay Jones made $9,000 from Cavs this season. He just got fined $6,000 for 2 techs and an ejection.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) May 2, 2017
Luckily for Jones, he’s got LeBron James in his corner, and the two have been here before. Last year, when the Cavs played the Raptors in the playoffs, Jones whacked Bismack Biyombo in the midsection and James offered to pick up the tab on his light $80 fine.
Though this latest fine is considerably heftier, James said he would again pay it for his teammate.
“I said I was going to pay the fine before I even knew what it was. It didn’t matter,” James said after the game. “And I told him tonight, I said, ‘Listen, Dahntay, now enough is enough. Stop getting kicked out against Toronto all the time, all right? I’m going to stop paying your damn fines.’ But yeah, he don’t have to worry about it. He’s good.”
LeBron James on Dahntay Jones' ejection: "Enough is enough, stop getting kicked out against Toronto so I can stop paying your damn fines." pic.twitter.com/ZGz8UQhZw2
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 2, 2017
The Cavs knew what they were getting when they signed Jones. As a 36-year-old with a career 5.4-point-per-game scoring average, his only real role is to bother opposing teams. And that can sometimes be expensive.
