Josh McRoberts has been fined $20,000 by the NBA for his flying elbow on two-time reigning MVP LeBron James during the Miami Heat’s 101-97 takedown of the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night.
The Heat now lead the opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series 2-0, but that hardly does justice to the competitive nature of the series or typifies just how tough the first two games have played out, all of which probably prompted McRoberts to go airborne at James in the final seconds of Wednesday night’s nail-biting finish.
The 6-foot-10, 240-pound McRoberts hit James with a forearm to the neck as the two converged in the paint with less than a minute remaining in the Heat’s most recent victory. The forearm shiver not only stunned The King, but knocked him on his backside and sent him wincing in pain.
Even though it was ruled a common foul by game officials, the NBA league office later upgraded it to flagrant foul status following their review and assessed the 27-year-old, eight-year veteran forward this year’s first playoff levied fine.
“We just kind of got caught up in the air there,” McRoberts told ESPN. “For me, real time was coming pretty fast down the lane. He’s a real strong guy and I was just trying to stop him from first getting the shot up. It looked worse than it was.”
James might not agree with that view, after the game telling reporters he was dealing with soreness around his neck and of the opinion he was “attacked” by McRoberts.
“I got elbowed in the throat, it’s not a very good feeling, especially the contact that happened,” said James. “I was trying to catch my breath, and hopefully it wasn’t too bad. I had to finish the game. All I was thinking was how I was going to make the free throws, because it was a close game at that point.”
All season long, the four-time league MVP has complained about being excessively hit, even having his nose broken by Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka on a drive to the basket just after the All-Star break. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound James ranked near the top of the league in free throw attempts this season and has already taken more than twice the number of free throws (22) of the entire Bobcats team over the first two games of the series.
