League Hits Back At Bryant

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NEW YORK ? Kobe Bryant was shocked, Phil Jackson was "astonished," and an organization crossed its arms and furrowed its brow at a one-game suspension handed down by the NBA to Bryant.

Then the Lakers received another sign that all wasn't well.

Already without Luke Walton and Kwame Brown, they went up against the New York Knicks without a third starter and met an almost predictable ending ? a 99-94 loss Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Along with that, they reached three-consecutive-loss territory for the first time this season and started out their eight-game trip against mostly mediocre Eastern Conference teams with a whimper.

"I am always concerned," Jackson said afterward, "because winning is the ultimate goal."

It was a chore rendered extremely difficult without Bryant, suspended for striking San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili in the face with 0.2 of a second left in the fourth quarter of the Spurs' 96-94 overtime victory Sunday.

Bryant was stunned by the news, as were the rest of the Lakers, who have lost five of six.

He was not ejected for the incident, nor was a foul called on the play, which came as the Lakers were trying to break an 80-80 tie. After Ginobili blocked Bryant's 19-foot attempt from the left side, Bryant flailed his arms and caught Ginobili in the face with his right arm. Ginobili came away with a bloody nose and a welt under his eye, and did not re-enter the game until 2:14 remained in overtime.

Bryant's suspension was without pay and cost him $161,080. He can appeal the fine at a later date. League rules barred him from being in the arena for the game, but he spoke to reporters after the team's Tuesday morning shoot-around. He found out about the suspension after he got off the team bus to the shoot-around.

"I'm surprised, shocked by it actually," he said. "It's basketball. It happens. You go to the basket, the ball gets stripped from you or something, you flail your arms up, try to accentuate the foul, you unintentionally catch somebody and get suspended for one game. I don't know what to say, really. I'm blown away by it. This makes no sense."

Bryant said he "felt terrible" after the play and checked with Ginobili three times to make sure he was OK.

Ginobili and Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich initially said the blow was struck after Bryant's natural follow-through motion. Popovich even joked that Ginobili looked "like Rocky Balboa," but changed his opinion later after watching the replay.

"The league is very consistent at trying to take away physical plays that are over the line," Popovich told the San Antonio Express-News on Tuesday. "Anything above the neck or the shoulders is considered the sensitive zone where there's going to be very, very little give or leeway on the part of the league."

Stu Jackson, who handles NBA disciplinary matters as the league's senior vice president of basketball operations, said Tuesday's punishment hinged mainly on one factor: contact above the shoulders that was an "unnatural basketball act."

"After he followed through with a shot, he drove a stiff arm backward in a hard motion and struck Ginobili in the head," he said. "We do not view this as an inadvertent action?. This is all about the safety of our players in the workplace."

The NBA players' association took the unusual step of demanding an immediate appeal on behalf of Bryant, but the league brushed it aside.

Stu Jackson declined to say whether the Spurs urged the league to look into the matter. Phil Jackson didn't seem to care who started it, but he knew the league had ended it, saying he was "astonished."

"I think it's a unilateral decision," he said. "Baseball has all the appeals that they go through and in basketball, we just have the dictation come to us and we submit. This is one of those things that we're questioning, 'Why?'

"There's so many things going into it, that to draw a conclusion like that leads me to think that a non-basketball player probably made the decision on this particular act. I don't think someone who played basketball and knows how people work to try and get a foul or try to create contact to make a foul would question that."

Jackson later joked that maybe he would get back at the league by not playing Bryant when the Lakers play Cleveland, and LeBron James, in a nationally televised game at the end of their trip.</div>

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