Not So Smart: Marcus Smart Suspended Three Games For Punch
Marcus Smart suspended 3 games for punching Warriors center Charles Bassey, costing him $125K of his $6M salary in a heated rebounding dispute.
Black News 
When you’re earning over $6M, maybe $125K isn’t that much to lose. But on the other hand, in this economy, every dollar counts.
That’s the situation facing Houston Rockets guard Marcus Smart, who will lose $125,462 of his $6,064,000 salary after a three-game suspension for throwing a punch at Golden State Warriors center Charles Bassey.
The incident took place during the Rockets’ 115-108 win over the Warriors at the Toyota Center in Houston. In the third quarter with 21 seconds left and Houston up 84–76, Smart and Bassey got tangled under the basket fighting for a rebound after a basket by Amen Thompson.
The players were mouthing at each other as they walked up the floor, and Smart threw a punch that at first looked like it missed. But the NBA says footage reveals that it grazed Bassey. After the two were separated by Warriors forwards Gui Santos and Yaxel Lendeborg, the exchange led to a flagrant foul 2 and Smart’s ejection.
Bassey was not assessed a foul and made one of the two free throws.
“I remember the first half, I was trying to set a screen [and] he grabbed my knee,” Bassey said to the media afterwards. “He was playing dirty. I think I was trying to get a rebound. He was grabbing my hand, and I was trying to run back on defense. Then he got up on me and just swung. Obviously, that was weak.”
Bassey added, “I just think that was, honestly, fake toughness. It didn’t surprise me. I knew he was going to do something. I don’t think he was trying to play. I think he was trying to get himself out of the game. I think he was trying to chill. He wasn’t trying to hoop. That was fake toughness.”
The suspension was first reported by ESPN‘s Shams Charania before the league announcement. James Jones, the NBA’s EVP and Head of Basketball Operations, said that Smart was suspended, “for throwing a punch that made contact with the face” of Bassey.
Smart will miss the Friday, Nov. 13 NBA Cup Group game vs. Utah at home, the Sunday, Nov. 15 game at Washington, and the Monday, Nov. 16 game at Miami. He’ll be able to return on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Indiana.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year from his last season with the Boston Celtics, Smart, 32, has been ejected a total of 13 times in his NBA career. He signed a two-year, $12.4 million deal with Houston in the offseason.
Bassey, 26, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, was drafted 55th by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021 but bounced around, playing sparingly for four different teams. He revitalized his career playing with Santa Cruz in the G League before signing with the Warriors this year.
The Rockets improved to 9–3, putting them in third place in the Western Conference. The Warriors dropped to 8- 4 and are in sixth place, with the news that Steph Curry is out for several weeks with an oblique tear.
