Rajon Rondo has many basketball accolades to his name that the NBA would remember for a long time. He recently announced his retirement from the game and all of a sudden everybody got reminded of the time when the former Los Angeles Lakers point guard had punches flying at Chris Paul.
It was the NBA season 2018-19 when the game saw one of the most talked about brawls. The Lakers were confronting the Houston Rockets and had the things going tight with scoring hustle.
Everything looked good until 4:13 prior to the fourth quarter of the game when things started heating up between James Harden and Brandon Ingram. The duo had a wordy spat until Ingram pushed Harden and later assessed a technical foul.
Soon after Rondo rose to the scene and the exchange unfolded with him and CP. While getting it confronted face to face, Rondo spat on Paul’s face resulting in Paul poking into Rondo’s eye.
Without sparing much time, punches started raining with the first fist launched from Rajon Rondo’s side. However, Ingram was also seen landing a couple of punches right to Paul’s face.
Rajon Rondo shared his side of the ‘Spitgate’
Rajon Rondo denied spitting on Chris Paul's face during the furious brawl. He mentioned that he had a mouthguard and did not spit on CP intentionally.
As per USA Today, Rondo said, "Of course, the NBA went with his side because I got three games and he got two. Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don't know he's a horrible teammate. They don't know how he treats people."
The former Laker also emphasized on the difference between exasperating and spitting and highlighted the 'Spitgate' has become bigger than basketball for the media(then).
However, the NBA suspended Rondo for three games whereas Paul got a two game suspension.