Why Wasn’t Dwight Howard Suspended?

The Houston Rockets can breathe a sigh of relief now that our star center, Dwight Howard, will not be suspended.

The Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen reports:

This particular news revolved around a slight scuffle in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals at near start of the third quarter.

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Howard got tangled up with Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut and as he was freeing himself up, he threw his left elbow while running in the opposite direction. He connected with the back on Bogut’s hand.

The action did result in a immediate stoppage of play as the officials, led by Joey Crawford, reviewed the transpiring set of events and deemed his actions to warrant a Flagrant Level 1 foul.

The NBA did conduct a review of the play itself and decided not upgrade Howard’s actions to a Flagrant Level 2 foul.

Should he have been suspended?

If you haven’t seen it already take a look at the play and be the judge:

Howard had two flagrant foul points for the playoffs and had that foul been upgraded, he would’ve received his 4th point, triggering an automatic suspension by the NBA.

The NBA’s Rod Thorn, president of basketball of basketball operations, explains his decision to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com:

"“It was a very close call as far as I’m concerned,” Thorn said. “As Bogut is holding his arm down, Howard tries to extricate his arm. He doesn’t hit him with his elbow, by the way. He hits him with the back of his hand, maybe a touch of the wrist. To me, it was unnecessary, but I didn’t think it was excessive.”"

Interesting analysis to which I agree — here’s Thorn explaining what factors that led up to his decision:

"“Having been here forever and having done this stuff for a long time, I just try to look at each situation as it comes up,” Thorn said. “Obviously, we have all of the information from everything we’ve ever done before, plus tape and video of everything we’ve done before to fall back on. As far as the name of the player, I’ve never let that enter into it.”"

Those are definitely factors that should always be considered when reviewing such a pivotal play. Suspending Howard would’ve been somewhat devastating for the Rockets so careful and tact analysis had to be undergone. Thorn also compares this incident to the Game 3 one involving Al Horford and Matthew Delladova in the Eastern Conference Finals.

"“What differentiated it as far as I’m concerned was Dwight’s contact was in part to extricate himself from the situation with Bogut,” Thorn said. “It was unnecessary and deserved a flagrant-1. Horford’s contact was in retaliation for what he felt Dellavedova had done to him, and to me fit the criteria for unnecessary and excessive.”"

Stu Jackson, Thorn’s predecessor and discipline czar gave his take:

Whoa — I’m glad Stu’s no longer in charge because Howard would’ve been out of there!

To be honest, he’s giving his perspective from the outside and there’s no telling how he would’ve decided had he still been in charge.

I love my Rockets and by doing my utmost to look at this event without bias and subjectively, Howard should’ve not been suspended but I did have a feeling when it happened that he’d be ejected from that game as result of his actions.

He’s has been manhandled the entire playoffs with little or no calls to benefit him so my opinion about this remains steadfast.

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He wasn’t and the Rockets ended up winning Game 4 128-115 with Howard being a key factor, contributing 14 points and 12 rebounds.

So Superman will be in uniform tonight to which I’m pleased.

The Rockets take on the Golden State Warriors tonight at 8 p.m. CDT at Oracle Arena.

The game will be televised on ESPN and broadcast on SportsTalk 790 AM (KBME)/ESPN Radio 97.5 FM (KFNC).

Go Rockets.

Next: Houston Rockets: Where Do They Go From Here?