During Sunday afternoon's NBA tilt between the Los Angeles Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder, OKC star Serge Ibaka took what appeared to be an intentional swipe at L.A. star Blake Griffin's nether regions.
Griffin fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Ibaka stomped about the court like a WWE heel. The two teams looked ready to fight briefly. Order was restored, and the Thunder went on to win. Video of Ibaka's low blow (see above) has since been viewed more than 250,000 times on YouTube, and the incident has sparked widespread debate among sports fans online.
That debate only intensified on Tuesday, when the NBA announced it would fine Ibaka $25,000, but not suspend him from any games. Many fans, players and writers squawked that Ibaka got off easy.
In December, Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade was suspended one game -- taking a financial hit of $150,000 -- after he pulled a similar move by pseudo-inadvertently kicking an opponent below the belt, mid-game. The discrepancy in discipline was not lost on Heat teammate LeBron James, who tweeted a message of protest including the original phrase "groin altercation" on Tuesday afternoon:
So explain to me the difference? My teammate gets a 1 game suspension and 150k+ taking away from him for his groin altercation #strangetome— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 5, 2013
Because we would expect nothing less from basketball tweeters, the hashtag #groinaltercation quickly became a popular forum for jokes, bon mots and simple one-hashtag tweets.
Was Ibaka's punishment fair, or did he get off too easy? Give us your take in the comments.
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