Pippen fined for forearm to Salley's head
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- Scottie Pippen of the Portland Trail Blazers was
fined $10,000 Tuesday for hitting John Salley of the Los Angeles
Lakers in the back of the head with a forearm.
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Rod Thorn, head of basketball operations for the NBA, said the
fine was for an incident that occurred with 52 seconds remaining in
Sunday's Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in Portland. Pippen hit Salley with a forearm to
the back of the head as play moved upcourt.
No foul was called and Pippen was not suspended. He was
involved in a shoving match with Lakers forward Rick Fox in Game
3, with both players receiving technical fouls, and has been
trash-talking with Lakers guard Kobe Bryant throughout the
series.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he told Pippen during Tuesday's Game 5 he should have been suspended for a
game for elbowing Salley.
"He shouldn't have been playing in this ballgame," Jackson
said. "He clearly threw a cheap-shot elbow to the back of the head
and he just got fined $10,000. I wanted to tell him that he was a
presence who shouldn't have been there."
In the latest of what has been a back-and-forth bickering
between the player and his former coach, Pippen was unimpressed by
Jackson's opinion.
"Phil is not my coach. I'm not listening to nothing you tell me
about Phil. Have a good day," he said after Portland's Game 5 win, then he left the postgame
news conference.
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