NEW YORK: Chris Andersen was suspended Friday by the NBA for his altercation with Tyler Hansbrough, leaving the Miami Heat without one of their best big men as they try to finish off the Indiana Pacers in Game 6.
The league also upgraded Andersen’s foul to a Flagrant 2, which would have meant an automatic ejection had it been called at the time.
Andersen knocked Hansbrough to the floor from behind with 9:02 left in the second quarter Thursday, then shoved him backward after Hansbrough got up. Andersen still wouldn’t back away when a referee stepped in, and the league said in a statement that he “resisted efforts to bring the altercation to an end.”
Andersen has made all 15 shots from the field in the series, and the Heat could miss the Birdman’s size Saturday against the bigger Indiana front line.
Though referees reviewed the play and upgraded it from a common foul to a flagrant, they chose not to make it a Flagrant 2 and throw Andersen out of the game.
But NBA Commissioner David Stern, speaking Friday in taped interview with NBC Sports Radio, said he thought Andersen should have been ejected.
“I don’t know what he was doing,” Stern said, according to a transcript provided by the network. “A serious review of his activities is called for.”
Sale of Kings to India’s Ranadive finalized
Meantime, the sale of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings to an investment group headed by Indian software magnate Vivek Ranadive was finalized on Friday.
Ranadive becomes the first NBA owner of Indian heritage at a time when the league has made moves to try and grow interest in basketball among the 1.2 billion people in cricket-loving India.
The sale to his group ends a drawn-out saga in which the Maloof family’s desire to sell the franchise to a group that would move it to Seattle sparked dismay in Sacramento.
The Maloofs had controlling ownership of the Kings since 1999 and had been trying to sell the club after efforts for a new stadium deal repeatedly fell through.
Even so, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player, kept working to keep the team in the city.
A new stadium deal is part of Ranadive’s package. Sacramento city council now has a public-private deal in place to build a new 18,500-seat arena.
The Maloofs sold their controlling interest in the club and ownership of Sleep Train Arena for an NBA record $534 million.
The transaction had been approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors on Tuesday.
“We respect and would like to acknowledge the NBA Board of Governors’ dedication and diligence in working through this process over the past several months,” George Maloof said.
