Lakers.com's Mike Trudell reports that the NBA has absolved Kobe Bryant of that alleged assault on Ron Artest's tongue. Trudell points out that Bryant now has four technicals in the playoffs, instead of five. Any player who gets to seven for the playoffs gets a one-game suspension from the League.
i'm fairly surprised that it got rescinded. it was definitely a weak technical, but kobe basically rubbed his face on artest's so it's not like the technical just came from nothing(as the announcers would have had you believe). i have to assume that had kobe only had one or two techs over the playoffs it would have stood but since he's getting so close to seven, they rescinded it.
Does that warrant a technical though? If anything it's just a personal foul. Later in the game Landry clipped Gasol in the jaw and wasn't T'd up. They just called him for a personal foul. You also have to question the ref who made the call (the same idiot who blew the Antoine Wright foul in the Dallas game) because he was the furthest from the play. It wasn't his call to make. I think the refs were extra cautious last night because Stern was in attendance.
they had already called a personal foul on artest before it happened though, so that's why it was a tech instead of a personal. i don't think kobe deserved a tech, but i could understand why they gave him one.
It should have been a double foul then. I don't see anything that warranted a technical on the play. Kobe didn't argue with the ref or confront Artest about it.
well when artest tried to get away from the situation, kobe did reach out and grab him. the tech had already been called at that point though.
