NEW YORK, Oct. 28 -- The following suspensions have been announced Monday by Stu Jackson, NBA Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations, resulting from an altercation during the Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers game on Oct. 25 at STAPLES Center. The incident occurred with 9:53 left in the first quarter:

  • The Lakers' Rick Fox has been suspended without pay for six games for throwing a punch at Sacramento's Doug Christie on the court and then attacking and fighting with Christie in the arena hallway. Fox's suspension will cost him 6/90ths of his annual salary (nearly seven percent).


    Christie

    Fox

  • The Kings' Christie has been suspended for two games without pay for tossing a ball at Fox and throwing a punch on the court. Christie's suspension will cost him 2/90ths of his annual salary (more than two percent).

    "While players from both teams left their bench areas during the altercation, we are not imposing suspensions on those players," Jackson said. "Our rule regarding an automatic suspension for players leaving the bench was not intended to apply in a highly unusual situation like this one, where an altercation occurs in an access tunnel or hallway.

    "In this circumstance, our judgment was that the players who left the bench were attempting to break up the fight and did not escalate the altercation. Therefore, we have issued no penalties for those players."

    Fox is suspended for the first six games of the 2002-03 regular season and Christie will miss the first two games of the 2002-03 regular season.