Houston Rockets forwards Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green will be suspended two games for ambushing the Los Angeles Clippers’ locker room on Monday, the NBA announced Wednesday.
Chris Paul and James Harden, who reportedly also entered the opposing locker room, will avoid punishment, as will Blake Griffin and all other Clippers players.
Breaking: The NBA is suspending Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green two games for aggressively entering Clippers locker room. No penalties for Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and James Harden. (via @wojespn) pic.twitter.com/WPTIjMlt8T
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 17, 2018
The surprise here isn’t that Ariza and Green are headed for suspensions, it’s that Paul and Harden didn’t. Reports out of L.A. immediately after the incident had the Rockets’ two best players among the group that sent center Clint Capela to knock on the Clippers’ door as a sort of diversion, only to sneak in through a secret tunnel in back. The incident reportedly resulted in the police being called to the scene.
The NBA said in a statement Paul and Harden were not directly involved in the “hostile, verbal altercation” but merely followed Ariza and Green “in an effort to diffuse the situation.”
Barring an appeal, Ariza and Green’s suspensions will wrap up one of the most bizarre ordeals in NBA history. Between Capela’s diversion, the secret tunnel, the police and the fact the whole thing started because of Austin Rivers, who wasn’t even playing, the whole thing was a soap opera mixed with an action movie.
