Detroit’s Charlie Villanueva doesn’t really get it.
He was ejected with a Flagrant Two foul then was fined $25,000 for the foul he committed on the Kings Isaiah Thomas. Later Thomas called Villanueva a dirty player.
Villanueva both denied that and told the Detroit Free Press he plans to appeal the fine.
“Dirty player? Not at all,” Villanueva said. “He saw an open lane, I tried to block the ball and he’s 4-foot-11, a 100 pounds wet so he looks bad. I’m not a dirty player. I didn’t try to hurt him at all.”
Villanueva said he plans to appeal. Pistons coach Lawrence Frank scoffed at Thomas’ assertion.
As I said when we first posted the video of the ejection, this struck me as a foul on the borderline of worthy of an ejection. It was a hard foul but I didn’t think there was intent to injure.
He can appeal if he wants, but that’s not likely to go anywhere. To remove the fine from a flagrant-two and ejection is to say referees made a mistake with the initial call, and the league is not going to do that here on a borderline call.