The 2K rating may be going up, but the bank account rating is definitely on its way down.
Heat big man Hassan Whiteside has been suspended for one game without pay for throwing an elbow at Spurs center Boban Marjanovic in Tuesday night’s 119-101 loss to San Antonio, per Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Heat's Hassan Whiteside suspended one game without pay for throwing an elbow and making contact with the head of Spurs' Boban Marjanovic.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) February 11, 2016
Whiteside, 26, is averaging 12.2 points per game, 11.0 rebounds per game, and a league-leading 3.9 blocks per game for Miami this season. He will serve his ban in the team’s first game after the All-Star break against the Atlanta Hawks next Friday.
The elbow Whiteside threw at Marjanovic was an unquestionably dangerous, unnecessary, and utterly dirty play, well-worthy of a suspension. Here is video of the incident in question:
This is sadly the modus operandi for Whiteside, who has enormous physical gifts, but pathetically low basketball IQ/instincts and an unflattering history of these kinds of outbursts.
Whiteside is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season. However, the nature of his current minimum salary contract gives the Heat no advantage in retaining him and gives Whiteside virtually no trade value for other teams with the deadline fast approaching. As such, the Marshall product remains one of the most enigmatic and divisive talents in the NBA today.
Whiteside already shouldn’t be in the conversation for max money this offseason from a pure basketball standpoint, even under the new cap. His tendency to go Mount Vesuvius at unpredictable times certainly won’t help his case any either.
Video via Bleacher Report
