Pippen Penalty Isn’t All Fine With Salley

Portland’s Scottie Pippen was fined $10,000 for hitting John Salley in the back of the head with 52 seconds left in Game 4 on Sunday, which left the Lakers wondering.

When news of the fine came down before Game 5, several Lakers--especially Salley--questioned why Pippen wasn’t punished in a parallel manner to the Lakers’ Brian Shaw, who was suspended from Game 4 and fined $2,500 for taking several steps toward a Pippen-Rick Fox Game 3 scrum.

“There’s a double standard,” Salley said. “Brian Shaw doesn’t even fight. He’s a righteous man, doesn’t put his hands up to fight or anything and he gets suspended for taking steps.”

So how does Salley explain Shaw being suspended, and Pippen not?

“He also didn’t have anybody circle it,” Salley added, alluding to NBC commentator Doug Collins, who pointed out on the Game 3 telecast that Shaw had taken steps toward the fracas.

No foul was called on the Pippen-Salley incident, which involved Pippen throwing his forearm into the back of Salley’s head.

Salley said it was obvious Pippen was unhappy at the end of Game 4.

“Scottie was frustrated,” Salley said. “And I hit him--he passed the ball and I pushed him down, and he looked to the ref to give him a call. . . . And the ref didn’t. . . .

“He ran up and elbowed me in the back of the head. I just turned around and looked to the ref, said, ‘You going to call that? He said, ‘Call what?’. . .

“If you watch the tape, I didn’t do anything that vicious to him. I just pushed him down.”

Said Laker Coach Phil Jackson, Pippen’s longtime Chicago Bull coach: “I think he’s played a great series. . . . [But] Sunday, I thought he played a little bit frustrated.

“I was disappointed in the flagrant elbow or fist that he threw at the end of the game.”

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Jackson said he was watching the Eastern Conference final series between New York and Indiana, but said there was really no reason to root either way, or even for a long and brutal series.

“You just don’t know,” Jackson said. “You can’t get emotional in that series. . . .

“I’ve sat in that seat before and wished for the two teams to keep clawing at each other. . . . [But once, with the Bulls] we had to wait 10 days between closing out the series and opening the finals.

“And that is way too long for a basketball team to sit out. So you just let it happen.”

The NBA finals will not start until next Wednesday, so if the Lakers clinch Friday, they will have four days of rest before resuming play.