San Mig’s Pingris, Devance fined and suspended for roles in last Wednesday’s brawl vs Globalport
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) came down hard on Marc Pingris and Kelly Nabong, who were each slapped with a P60,000 fine and a two-game suspension for their involvement in a brawl in last Wednesday’s game between the San Mig Coffee Mixers and Globalport Batang Pier.
League Commissioner Chito Salud came up with decision yesterday after meeting with the erring players last Thursday. The fracas took place in the third period of San Mig’s 102-88 victory last Wednesday.
Pingris’ teammate Joe Devance was fined P30,000 and suspended for one game. It was Devance who shoved GlobalPort’s Marvin Hayes that triggered the melee.
With their suspensions, Pingris and Devance will be out when the Mixers take on Baragay Ginebra on Sunday. The Batang Pier will be without Nabong when they play Barako Bull also on Sunday.
Hayes and San Mig import Marqus Blakely initially took each other down in one play. Things became ugly when Hayes was shoved by Devance shortly after he stood up. Pingris and Nabong intervened and ended up trading blows.
Hayes was also slapped with a P20,000 fine.
“Fighting will not be condoned by the league. There is absolutely no justification for our players to get involved in fist fights. Strong emphasis is being placed on this policy so much so that those who dare to trigger fights will be dealt with accordingly,” said Salud in a pba.ph report.
Meanwhile, the Meralco Bolts pocketed their third straight victory with an 82-76 win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters last night in the continuing action of the 38th PBA Governors’ Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
High-scoring import Mario West scored just 17 points but the Bolts still found a way to chalk up their fourth win in six games that shoved them to second place behind the league-leading Petron Blaze (5-1).
John Wilson paced the Bolts with 18 points, while Cliff Hodges added 17.
The Painters absorbed their third loss against the same number of losses.
