Lakers' Rajon Rondo Calls Chris Paul 'Horrible Teammate,' Denies Spitting on Him
Los Angeles Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo was suspended three games by the NBA for spitting and throwing a punch at Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul during a Saturday night matchup between the teams.
Rondo has continued to maintain he didn't intentionally spit on Paul, however, as he told ESPN.com:
"I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I exasperated because I was about to tell him to 'get the [expletive] out of here.' Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and Melo [Carmelo Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction."
Rondo also suggested Paul only receiving a two-game suspension was due to Paul having a "good guy" image around the NBA:
"Of course, the NBA went with his side because I got three games and he got two. Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don't know he's a horrible teammate. They don't know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in LA; trying to get to the Clippers locker room. They don't want to believe he's capable of taunting and igniting an incident."
"Exasperating and spitting are two different things. He comes out and says I spit and the media sides with that."
Rondo also suggested that the slow-motion replays that clearly show spit coming from his mouth and heading into the direction of Paul didn't take context into consideration or prove intent:
"Y'all are playing me with these tricks or these mind games, tampering with the evidence. Ain't no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was.
"One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I'm going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain't going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me."
Various members of the Rockets, most notably Anthony, said after the game that Rondo spit on Paul. Members of the Lakers defending Rondo said he didn't spit on Paul. Regardless of Rondo's intent, it was the catalyst for the fight that would follow.
The entire ordeal began after Brandon Ingram fouled James Harden in the fourth quarter and pushed him in the back after it appeared Harden advocated for a foul call. Ingram then angrily got in an official's face, and Paul and Rondo began having words.
After the spit appeared to hit Paul's face, he put his finger in the face of Rondo, who responded by pushing Paul and hitting him with a left hook. Paul swung back, teammates quickly began breaking the pair up, and Ingram rushed back into the fracas, throwing a punch in the direction of Paul.
Ingram, for his actions, was given the harshest penalty of the trio, a four-game suspension.
And so Spitgate comes down to two possibilities given the video evidence that seems to suggest pretty clearly Paul got hit with spit: One, Rondo intentionally spit on Paul, making it hard to judge Paul for jamming his finger in the face of Rondo. In this scenario, Rondo comes out looking very bad.
In the other possibility, Rondo didn't intentionally spit on Paul at all but the Rockets guard believed he did, making it hard to judge Paul for jamming his finger in the face of Rondo. In turn, Rondo's reaction of swinging on Paul with a finger in his face is more understandable if he believed in the moment that Paul was instigating the situation, not realizing Paul had been hit by spit.
At stake, essentially, is each player's reputation. Neither wants to be seen as the instigator in the fight, and Rondo certainly doesn't want to have the reputation of a player who intentionally spit in another person's face.
