{"id":711495,"date":"2026-04-16T02:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711495\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T02:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:42:16","slug":"nba-playoffs-2026-lamelo-ball-avoids-suspension-fined-35k-for-trip-of-bam-adebayo-and-25k-for-profane-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/711495\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA playoffs 2026: LaMelo Ball avoids suspension, fined $35K for trip of Bam Adebayo and $25K for profane interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has not suspended for a play that resulted in an injury to Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo, the league announced Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ball was instead fined $35,000 and assessed a Flagrant 2 foul for a play the league described as \u201cunnecessary and reckless contact\u201d that \u201ccreated a significant injury risk.\u201d Had he received such a foul during the game, he would have been ejected.<\/p>\n

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He was also fined another $25,000 for using profane language in a postgame television interview.<\/p>\n

The NBA had reportedly started an investigation<\/a> to determine whether Ball tripping Adebayo, which took place in the second quarter of the Hornets\u2019 overtime play-in win over the Heat<\/a> on Wednesday, merited an upgrade to a flagrant foul and additional punishment.<\/p>\n

After Ball was knocked to the ground, he appeared to grab Adebayo\u2019s leg, leaving the Heat star off balance. Adebayo went down hard and was seen holding his back after the fall. Both teams continued to play after the incident, with the Hornets scoring at the other end before a timeout was called. Adebayo did not return to the game due to the injury.<\/p>\n

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was visibly frustrated on the sidelines and said after the game that action should have been taken against Ball.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSomebody has got to see that,\u201d Spoelstra said in the team\u2019s postgame news conference. \u201cHe should have been thrown out of the game for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place in the game for those kinds of shenanigans. It wasn\u2019t needed. [Ball] was frustrated, and I think he felt like he got fouled, so he took the liberty of yanking somebody. That should be penalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball addressed the media after the game regarding his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize on that one,\u201d Ball said about the play. \u201cI got hit in the head and didn\u2019t really know where I was, but I\u2019m going to check on [Adebayo] and see if he\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball continued to be the main topic of conversation, finishing with 30 points and the go-ahead layup despite shooting 2-for-16 from 3-point range. It was an eventful game, and now he\u2019ll be able to keep playing Friday when Charlotte faces the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has not suspended for a play that resulted in an injury to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1179,7,473,1200,67703,966,6,11,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-711495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-bam-adebayo","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-erik-spoelstra","12":"tag-flagrant-2-foul","13":"tag-lamelo-ball","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-playoffs","16":"tag-orlando-magic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116412084654264694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}