NBA fines Rajon Rondo $35k for altercation in OKC Thunder, 11/22 game

The fallout from the LA Lakers’ second win versus the OKC Thunder last week finds Rajon Rondo being fined $35,000 for his actions in the game.

The Game on Saturday between the OKC Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers ended up having a pretty significant carry over to week six of NBA action.

First, Hamidou Diallo will be lost to the Thunder for at least a month and up to six weeks due to a hyperextended elbow. The injury was sustained during the fourth quarter when LeBron James seemingly locked Diallo’s arm and then pushed him off to get the “and one” call from the officials.

Billy Donovan asked for a coach’s challenge on that specific play but it was deemed the correct call. An interesting take because Diallo seemed to already be in pain as he fell to the hardwood.

Now, more kickback from that particular game seeps into this week as the NBA fined Rajon Rondo $35,000.00. The fine was levied for a variety of reasons.

From NBA.com – official news article on the fine:

"Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo has been fined $35,000 for making unsportsmanlike physical contact with Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schroder, verbal abuse of a game official, and failing to leave the court in a timely manner upon his ejection, it was announced Saturday by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations."

This wasn’t the first altercation of the night as Rondo and Schroder were in beef mode all game long. Earlier in the match, Alex Caruso fell down and Rondo tried to give him a hand to help him up but Rondo ran over and blocked the OKC Thunder point guard from helping up Caruso.

That situation escalated and eventually, both players were levied offsetting technical fouls.

Regarding the flagrant two, It did seem like Schroder perhaps played up the contact although Rondo did himself no favors by continually jawing with the officials.

Let’s not forget the Lakers guard has a history with another Thunder point guard – Chris Paul which resulted in spit-gate last season. I was expecting there would be some sort of exchange between CP3 and Rondo but on this night his focus was all on Schroder.

After the match, LeBron James stood up for his guy stating he didn’t think the move warranted a flagrant two. And after the next game, LeBron was complaining about not getting to the line when the Lakers played the Memphis Grizzlies.

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I find this whole thing nonsensical because if you took a poll of players around the NBA I’m sure they’d be complaining about the numerous straight arm push-offs James gets away with (and he’s a superstar so I get it).

Furthermore, the Lakers already won a game this season on a no call for an offensive foul by James versus the Sacramento Kings. Consequently, the league confirmed the day after they got the call wrong.

Plus the first game between the OKC Thunder and Lakers last week there was the travel call on Danilo Gallinari in clutch time that even the LA TV announcers admitted was NOT a travel.

As far as LeBron not getting to the line versus the Grizzles— why is he complaining? The Lakers got 29 free throw attempts to the Grizzlies THIRTEEN and won by a single point. Again, I’m sure if you polled the other 29 teams they’d happily exchange the double free throw edge even if their best player didn’t get to take any.

As for this situation, it’s simple – Rondo committed the act and has to pay the price for it.