Houston Rockets players reportedly broke into the Los Angeles Clippers locker room after the game Monday night, and chaos ensued.
ESPN reported the following details on the situation:
Rockets guard Gerald Green joined Ariza, Paul and Harden through the connecting hallway and breached the entrance of the home team’s locker room.
Stunned Clippers players, celebrating a 113-102 victory, leaped to their feet upon the realization that four seething Rockets players had come calling for them, sources told ESPN.
For a few fleeting moments, several Clippers dared the Rockets to come farther into the room, sources said. Security and team officials soon converged on the Rockets, pushing them out the door and back toward the visiting locker room, sources said. Ariza was described as the first one through the door, with Paul lingering in the back, witnesses told ESPN.
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The Rockets players were filled with a greater animus for Austin Rivers, sources told ESPN, because they insist that he had been especially belligerent from the bench in the late stages of the Clippers’ victory.
Bleacher Report posted a video of Rivers exchanging words with Rockets players at the end of the game, and it certainly didn’t look friendly.
Multiple reporters on Twitter also reported that police had to get involved in the situation.
Ballmer is here and police have also arrived … it is chaos here.
— Delmy Barillas (@DelmyBarillas) January 16, 2018
LAPD was called into the locker room area. Now hearing Chris Paul stayed out of it, 3 Rockets players were going after Austin Rivers.
— Ashley Brewer (@abc7ashley) January 16, 2018
James Harden, Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green tried to go after Austin Rivers. Apparently Chris Paul stayed out of the scuffle.
— Ashley Brewer (@abc7ashley) January 16, 2018
Houston Rockets’ players James Harden, Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green pushed into Clippers locker room post-game looking to confront Austin Rivers, league sources tell ESPN. Security escorted Rockets out before anything turned physical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 16, 2018
Rockets players were clamoring for Blake Griffin too, league sources said. Chris Paul also entered with other Rockers players through a backstory that connects team dressing rooms. https://t.co/BRgyHe1WgL
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 16, 2018
Blake Griffin also fired off a tweet early Tuesday morning of the Joker blowing up the hospital from the movie “The Dark Knight.”
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin32) January 16, 2018
How is this even possible? How are four players from an opposing team ever able to get to the locker room of an opponent? Is there no security in the locker room? Where were the police? A situation like this is never acceptable. There’s literally no situation where four opposing players are capable of marching into the opposing team’s locker room and start an altercation.
I’m not a rules expert, but NHL rules should apply to all situations like this. Fighting should 100 percent be allowed to defend the locker room if necessary. Start throwing punches immediately if you’re the Clippers in this situation. There is zero chance you can let the league think you’re soft. Somebody probably would be put in the hospital if this happened in the NHL, and that’s why stuff like this doesn’t happen in the NHL. There are consequences for the actions of players.
The NBA should also take a hard look at suspending every single one of the Rockets players who allegedly breached the locker room. It doesn’t need to be anything to severe, but you can’t let the precedent get set that this is normal behavior. We’ll have to wait and see what Adam Silver decides to do.
