In the wake of the Lakers-Rockets brawl this past weekend, Rajon Rondo continues to deny that he intentionally spit on Chris Paul, causing the altercation to spiral out of control.
According to ESPN, in making its decisions on penalties, the NBA analyzed court-side footage that appeared to show Rondo spitting. He eventually got hit with a three-game suspension, with CP3 getting two games.
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Here’s what the L.A. point guard had to say about the incident on Tuesday, via ESPN:
“This is the only time I’m going to address this. I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I was exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘get the [expletive] out of here.’
“Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look atĀ Eric [Gordon]Ā and Melo in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction.
“Of course, the NBA went with [Paul’s] side because I got three games and he got two. Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate. They don’t know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in LA; trying to get to the Clippers locker room. They don’t want to believe he’s capable of taunting and igniting an incident.
” … He comes out and says I spit and the media sides with that.”
Rondo went on to say that he believes the evidence has been tampered with and the story twisted:
“Y’all are playing me with these tricks or these mind games, tampering with the evidence. Ain’t no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was. One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I’m going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain’t going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me.
“I was going to let it rest. I wasn’t going to say much. But now I have kids and I teach my kids to speak up for themselves and don’t let the world tell their story.”
Glen “Big Baby” Davis, a former teammate of Rondo and CP3, chimed in as well:
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