New Orleans Hornets Coach Apologizes To Blake Griffin For Foul

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New Orleans Hornets coach Monty Williams said he sent Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin an apologetic text after Jason Smith leveled him to the ground in last week’s game between the two teams.

Williams, in his second season as the Hornets’ coach, texted Griffin on Friday, waiting until the day after Smith hit him to earn a two-game suspension for the buzz to die down, he said. Smith sat out Monday’s game which the Clippers won 97-85.

“I’ll say this, because I’m here in this city: What Jason did was wrong,” Williams said. “I told him that it was and that he went about it the wrong way, and that’s why I reached out to Blake to let him know that it wasn’t something we do on a regular basis.”

Williams said hits such as Smith’s don’t occur as often in today’s NBA as they did when he got into the league in the early 1990s. That’s why he was surprised at the play. But, speaking candidly, he said Griffin’s offensive presence was part of what sparked Smith to foul him in such a manner.

Griffin had dunked on Smith several times in the game before the flagrant foul in the fourth quarter.

“He’s no fool — he knows he’s making people look crazy and guys don’t like that,” Williams said of Griffin. “He’s gotta expect some of that. It’s just gonna happen. If you jump 5 feet over somebody and dunk it and you got people coming up to you and hugging you after you do it, the opponent’s not gonna say, ‘Oh, man, can you do that again?’

“He’s a phenomenon, and a lot of guys don’t like that.”

Williams added that Griffin was “really cool” about the situation in exchanging texts with him Friday.