Miami Heat forward Chris Andersen has been suspended one game without pay and has had his flagrant one from Game 5 upgraded to a flagrant two, the league announced on Friday.
Andersen, who has been on a tear offensively for the Heat in connecting on all 15 of his field goal attempts in the series, will miss Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday.
Really, this isn’t anything even resembling a surprise. Anyone watching when Andersen first leveled Tyler Hansbrough with a forearm, and then got face to face with him before shoving him again was incredulous that he was allowed to stay in the game at the time.
David Stern said as much during an interview with NBC Sports Radio, and considering how guarded the commissioner usually is with his comments, that further let us know that the suspension was on its way.
The official explanation from the league as to what exactly warranted the suspension is as follows:
“Andersen knocked Indiana Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough to the floor, escalated the altercation by shoving Hansbrough, and resisted efforts to bring the altercation to an end.”
That’ll do it.
The technical foul assessed to Hansbrough, who did nothing in this particular instance to evoke such a response, was just as ridiculous as the referees allowing Andersen to continue to play. It was rescinded by the league, which completes the cleaning up of the mess the referees made of this incident when it initially took place.
