SEATTLE – His two-game NBA suspension behind him, forward Danny Fortson is expected to be on the court when the Seattle SuperSonics host the Golden State Warriors tonight at KeyArena.
That is, if his latest outburst doesn’t get him into more hot water with the league.
Fortson went through the team’s midday practice on Tuesday, and afterward he expressed remorse for his actions after being ejected from last week’s game against the Sacramento Kings. As he headed to the locker room last Thursday night, Fortson took a chair from the end of the team’s bench and flipped it in the air, and it likely would have struck a courtside spectator had teammate Jerome James not made a nifty midair catch.
“There’s no excuse for what I did,” said Fortson, who forfeited his salary for the two games he missed, meaning his penalty was about $130,000. “Obviously, it was a mistake.
“My team needs me to play, it’s that simple,” he added. “And when I do things like that, I hurt the team. Ray Allen already got on me earlier in the year about (emotional outbursts) and I agree with that. Just play ball, it’s as simple as that.”
That said, Fortson was emphatic about the injustice of Thursday’s incident, which began when he was guarding Sacramento’s Chris Webber closely and ended up getting knocked to the floor. Webber then stood over Fortson, glaring at him, and when Fortson arose the two exchanged sharp words. The referees quickly interceded and both players received technical fouls.
During a subsequent lull, a few Seattle players took their angry teammate aside and appeared to calm him. But then as the two teams prepared to resume play, Webber walked over and said something to Fortson. When Fortson responded crossly, official Dan Crawford tagged him with a second technical, an automatic ejection.
When Webber was allowed to stay in the game, “I got a little upset,” Fortson admitted. If Webber had also been tossed, “it would have been totally different. That would have been an eye for an eye and I wouldn’t have blown up like that. I understand he’s a superstar, but at the same time let’s be fair about it.”
Fortson believes that Webber tried to provoke him (which replays seem to support) “and I know that Danny Crawford saw the same thing,” he said. “But (Crawford) just felt like he had to be the judge, he had to be God for a minute, and come in there and dictate everything. As an athlete, you work hard and prepare for games against (good teams like) Sacramento and against good players like Chris Webber. You put a lot of hard work into it, and the last thing you need is somebody like Danny Crawford or another official who feels the power to come in there and dictate a game.
“That’s the most frustrating thing. I’m in my 20s and Danny Crawford is in his 40s. He should just let us play the game. His time is over with. He needs to referee games and let us play the games.”
Throughout the season, Fortson’s coaches and teammates have talked to him about keeping his temper in check. In fact, McMillan spoke with Fortson at length after the Sacramento game.
“In my opinion, Danny is well aware of what is going on,” McMillan said Tuesday. “And this is something that he knows he has to control. … All these players play with a lot of emotion, but some can control situations better than others.
“These guys understand you can’t go in the stands and start a brawl (as happened in a Detroit-Indiana game earlier this season), and you can’t toss a chair,” he added. “A technical and an ejection, that’s where this should have ended. Everything else that happened, he needs to address that.”
The irony is that McMillan and several of the Sonics players credited Fortson with the spark that allowed Seattle to come from behind and beat the Kings. Indeed, his aggressive and emotional play has been a much-needed catalyst for the Sonics this season. Without Fortson a year ago, Seattle finished a disappointing 37-45 and out of the playoffs. To date this season, the Sonics are 35-14 and the runaway leaders in the Northwest Division race.
Just as evident, though, is that the league and its game officials are not cutting Fortson any slack. He is among the league leaders in flagrant fouls, technical fouls and ejections, and his recent suspension was his second by the league this season – he had to sit out one game earlier in the year for an elbow delivered to Toronto’s Chris Bosh.
On Tuesday, Fortson seemed genuinely repentant for his latest outburst, but he stopped short of promising that it would not happen again.
“I can’t guarantee that,” he said, “so there’s no use saying anything like that. I’m just going to say that I’m going to try harder and try better and keep my focus (on playing).”
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