YOUTUBESCREENSHOT
Miami Heat guard Hassan Whiteside during a post game interview
Christian Post Report – Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside getting suspended by the league for one game without pay following his strike on Boston Celtics’ forward Kelly Olynyk on Monday.
This is the second time that the 25-year-old athlete has been reprimanded for his misconduct, according to ESPN. He was fined $15,000 for the latest incident on top of his $40,000 worth of league disciplinary penalties, which generally involves technical fouls.
The blow to the back of Olynyk occurred around the third quarter, when Whiteside “initially swung his elbow upward to prevent Olynyk from grabbing his arm.”
The North Carolina native was initially given a personal foul call but later on was upgraded to a Flagrant 2, which ejected him from the game.
Heat teammate Dwayne Wade saw Whiteside’s action as immature and urged him to be a person the team could count on.
“We all have our moments — selfish moments — but you can’t continue to keep having them,” Wade commented. “You’ve got to be reliable, and you’ve got to be able to be counted on. And right now, if he continues to act that way, then he’s not reliable.”
During their Tuesday’s practice, ESPN said that Whiteside did try to reach out and vowed never to do it again.
“I feel terrible about it. I feel like I let my teammates down,” Whiteside said.”It can’t happen again. I just want to apologize to everybody.”
Whiteside has averaged 10.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while playing for Heat over the mid-part of the season.
Source : Christian Post