James Harden warned for flop against Blazers
The NBA announced this morning that James Harden was warned for this flop against the Blazers’ Wesley Matthews on Tuesday night.
Ben Golliver of Blazersedge.com talked to Matthews and had the reaction from him after Tuesday’s game.
“He’s clever,” Matthews told Blazersedge wryly, when asked if perhaps Harden was guilty of simulating contact. “He’s a clever offensive player. I’ll leave it at that. The ref blew the whistle on what he thought he saw. I obviously wasn’t happy about it. That’s it.”
Harden’s head bob could trigger a flop warning from the league office, but there was little Matthews could do besides vent and stare into space.
“I felt like I was playing with five fouls all night,” he said. “There were a lot of whistles. That’s it. They shot a lot of free throws.”
Not sure whether this will make the Blazers feel any better but now James Harden will get fined $5,000 for his next flop.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.