Former NBA centre Oliver Miller has been suspended for the remainder of the Premier Basketball League finals and several other participants in the series had their wallets lightened Friday after a tumultuous finish to Game 1 the previous night in Rochester.
The host RazorSharks, bidding for their third straight PBL title, escaped with a 110-106 overtime victory over the Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry in the opener of the best-of-three series when officials called the game with 2.8 seconds left as a melee erupted at Blue Cross Arena.
According to an online article by Rochester newspaper the Democrat and Chronicle, Miller led Cavalry players across the floor and into the stands after a fan flung a water bottle that struck their coach, Michael Ray Richardson, as he was being escorted from the court following his ejection.
"I was going out and I was walking out and he (expletive) threw a bottle of water that hit me in my head," Richardson, also a former NBA player, told the Democrat and Chronicle. "That’s all I could remember."
The newspaper reported that the Cavs players and fans exchanged heated words but no punches were thrown, although several people who posted comments on a minor league basketball chat site alleged that Miller pushed a spectator before security guards intervened to defuse the situation.
In a release posted on the PBL website Friday evening, the league announced that the former Toronto Raptor pivot had been turfed for the rest of the playoffs, though it didn’t specify what he had done.
"Because of his actions, Oliver Miller has been suspended indefinitely from the Cavalry," PBL commissioner Tom Doyle said in the release. "There is no excuse for his poor choice in judgment."
The fiery Richardson was fined an undisclosed amount for using abusive and vulgar language and for not leaving the court in a timely fashion after being assessed his second technical foul.
Several other Cavs were fined for leaving the bench and entering the stands, while the Rochester organization was fined for not providing adequate security at the game.
The contest was called off after two water bottles were hurled onto the floor.
"The events at the conclusion of the playoff game marred what was shaping up to be a classic playoff series," Doyle said in the release.
"We will not tolerate any actions in which our players, our coaches or our fans are placed in any harm or danger, under any circumstance."
Doyle also said both teams had been put on notice to keep their noses clean for the rest of the series or risk harsher penalties.
Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday night at Great Plains Coliseum in Lawton, Okla., where the Cavalry have won all 11 starts this season.
The Cavs, whose 17-game winning streak was snapped Thursday night, swept the Halifax Rainmen 2-0 in their best-of-three semifinal series.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Sports/1178960.html
Nice to see the big O still playing basketball.
Miller always had a temper though...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF1vYO-vtCM[/youtube]
