MANILA, Philippines — Marcus Douthit of the Smart-Gilas Pilipinas and Lordy Tugade of San Miguel Beer were both fined for their unsportsmanlike conduct during their game last Saturday at The Arena in San Juan.
Tugade, who was assessed a technical foul for swinging his arm that hit Douthit in the chest, was given an automatic P1,000 penalty for his second motion early in the second period that led to a bench clearing incident.
On the other hand, the 6-foot-10 Douthit did not receive any technical call during the game, but upon thorough investigation of the PBA Commissioner’s Office, his action was upgraded to Flagrant Foul Penalty 1 and was fined P5,000.
PBA Commissioner Angelico “Chito” Salud, who met with Tugade and Douthit in his office yesterday, said that video replays showed that Douthit extended his elbow that hit Tugade in the chest before the latter retaliated.
“I told Marcus that was unnecessary. It was different from just a bump,” Salud said.
Except for the two, the other players were not fined despite the bench clearing incident, as cooler heads prevailed.
Smart-Gilas Serbian coach Rajko Toroman and SMB mentor Ato Agustin also escaped being fined even after their heated confrontation in front of the scorer’s table. The two were pacified by their respective coaching staff.
Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao was also fined P1,600 for using profane words during their game against Talk ‘N Text on Sunday which they lost, 99-78, while his player Beau Belga was fined P5,000 for a flagrant foul against TNT’s import Paul Harris in the same match.
The Nationals won against the Beermen, 109-68, to keep their record perfect at 4-0.
San Miguel, which dropped to 1-3, suffered its worst defeat in 13 years or since a 61-99 loss to Alaska in Game 6 of the 1998 All-Filipino Finals.
Salud said that he encouraged Douthit, a prospect for naturalization, to stay away from any other untoward incident and focus only on helping the team improve as they prepare for the 2011 FIBA-Asia Championship in September in Wuhan, China.
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