Alston could face suspension for incident with House
Celtics guard Eddie House exhanged words with Orlando’s Rafer Alston after House hit a three-pointer at the end of the third quarter in tonight’s 112-94 win over the Magic. Allston appeared to strike House in the back of the head as the two players scuffled, a move that had players and coaches here talking about whether the NBA would suspend Alston for Game 3. Both players were given technical fouls on the play.
“He did it deliberately,” Alston said after the game. “Usually he’ll run down the court and then show his emotion…He made a three, he loves celebrating. I’ve watched basketball all year. Usually he’ll run down the court and then celebrate. He’ll yell a few things. This time he made a three, I was standing out of bounds, and he throws an elbow and tries to take off down the court.
“It was just a natural reaction. You know I tried to get him, grab him before he ran back down the court. I have no hard feelings toward Eddie, I have a lot of respect for him. But when you’re having a good night, kicking our behinds, he shot the elbow at me, in my stomach it was just a natural reaction. Again, I have no hard feelings toward Eddie at all.”
House defended himself after the game.
“I wasn’t talking to them,” said House. “If I hit shots I may yell at my teammates, but I wasn’t talking to them at all. I am an emotional player and it was an emotional night.”
Alston said he was concerned on what the NBA might rule on the play, but said that he thought he would be proven innocent.
“Yeah, I’m concerned,” said Alston. “I can’t do much about it now. You know, the NBA is cool, they’ll look at the play at its entirety and they’ll see that he threw the elbow at first, at my stomach.”
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said after the game that he can’t worry about whether or not his point guard will be suspended.
“Hopefully there’s some things I see on the film that happened during the game that I can do something about,” said Van Gundy. “As far as [the Alston incident] goes, there’s not anything I can do about it.”
In an interesting turn, Van Gundy actually came to House’s defense after the game.
“If he gets under guys’ skins it’s because he gets excited when things are going good,” said Van Gundy. “I don’t think, my impression is Eddie’s not a guy who’s a pain in the [butt] at all. He’s excited and he’s going to let you know he’s kicking your butt. There’s a lot of guys like that in this league. The guy had a great game today.”
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