I did a little research and I found out that the Lakers tend to have the most player suspensions in the league within the past 5 years. 1. January 30, 2007 Bryant was suspended for an incident during the Lakers' 96-94 overtime loss to the Spurs. During the Lakers' final possession of regulation time, Ginobili blocked Bryant's shot. The Lakers player continued his follow through, apparently trying to draw a foul, and hit Ginobili in the face. 2. New York, NY -- January 1, 2008 - Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom was suspended one game without pay on Tuesday, for a foul he committed in Sunday's game against Boston. Odom will serve his suspension on Friday, when the Lakers face Philadelphia. With time winding down in the fourth quarter, Odom threw himself into Allen, knocked the Celtics' guard to the floor, and was whistled for a flagrant foul. Odom finished the game with 14 points and 10 rebounds, but the Lakers went on to lose the contest, 110-91. 3. New York, NY -- December 30, 2005 - Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, was suspended Friday for two games by the NBA for a flagrant foul against Memphis Grizzlies' forward Mike Miller in Wednesday's contest. But Bryant's problems apparently don't end with the league. According to the New York Post, Bryant and teammate Lamar Odom engaged in an angry confrontation after the Lakers' loss at Washington on Monday. Against Memphis, Bryant was called for a flagrant foul for elbowing Miller in the throat during the fourth quarter. The incident was originally ruled a Flagrant Foul Penalty One and subsequently upgraded by the NBA to a Penalty Two. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=2275560) 4. New York, NY -- March 10, 2009) - Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom has been suspended one game without pay after leaving the bench to join a scuffle during Monday's game against the Trail Blazers. LA's Trevor Ariza was ejected after committing a flagrant foul on Portland's Rudy Fernandez, sparking a melee between the teams. Ariza ran down Fernandez and clipped the top of his head with a swipe of the arm on a layup attempt with 2.2 ticks left in the third. The Trail Blazers took exception and shoves were traded, most notably between Ariza and Portland's Brandon Roy. Cooler heads mostly prevailed and the league determined Ariza would not be suspended for his actions, but Odom left the bench to restrain players and drew the lone penalty. If you look at this with a grain of salt the Lakers organization doesn't teach their players a code of basketball ethics towards others in the NBA. It gets annoying that the Laker organization doesn't look into this and provide a positive role model for their fans, season ticket holders, etc. They give their organization bad rap with this ongoing "player wacking".
Or maybe it's just that a good team is in a lot of high stakes, emotionally charged games where things like that happen more frequently? "Jordan Rules" never would have come into effect if his team sucked...
interesting, I would've guessed the opposite, in that Lakers would get off the hook far more easily than other players. In my own very biased opinion, I guess Laker players are either thuggish or they're the NBA's favorites.
Wow...so is this the preferential treatment Blazers fans claim the Lakers get? How nice of the NBA... *edited: No longer necessary with inappropriate posts removed*
So 4 accidents in 4 years is "prone" now? Why only 4 years btw? why not extend your "research" further? could it be because the latest laker suspense you could find was 4 years ago, and making it "4 in 4 years" makes it sound better than "4 in 8 years"?
