Horry Fined $10,000 for Shove

Robert Horry was fined $10,000 by the NBA on Thursday for shoving a TNT cameraman while leaving the floor at halftime of Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Horry said he probably would contest it.

“Of course I’m going to appeal it,” Horry said. “Unless they’re going to give it to the victims of this crazy war or something, give it to a good cause.”

There were various accounts of the incident, which occurred moments after Troy Hudson’s three-point basket beat the halftime buzzer and gave the Minnesota Timberwolves a 57-43 lead.

Horry said he saw the camera coming and pushed it before it got him. Indeed, the cameraman, from Minneapolis, downplayed the contact.

“It’s not a big thing at all,” Chris Trudeau said at halftime.

Another cameraman, also for TNT and also on the floor at the end of the first half, said Thursday Horry clearly went after the camera and was never in danger of being struck.

Horry, typically affable, kept his comments brief.

“You all can forget that I’m going to say anything,” he said on his way through the locker room, smiling but serious.

Phil Jackson said he did not agree with the fine -- “What is this league, the fining league?” -- said he was glad the league was doing its best protecting the television cameraman, and also contended that the incident happened partly because of the traffic on the floor.

“I think they should leave cameramen off the floor,” he said, “that’s what I think. They have long lenses.

“Rob, I think, more in his defense, was overrun ... by the guy who runs out there with the cable.”

He added, “Rob’s the least likely guy to be in a situation like that.”

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Game 3 began after 8 p.m., as dictated by the television contract, late for Los Angeles, biological bedtime for Minneapolis.

“For them,” Jackson said of the Timberwolves, “it’s 10 o’clock in whatever you want to call it, their Circadian rhythm.”

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The Lakers will learn their draft position Monday, when the league conducts a drawing to break ties. Among them, the Lakers, Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers had 50 wins, and the drawing will rank their positions from 23 to 25.

More important, the league will decide who gets more ping-pong balls in the lottery, the 65-loss Cleveland Cavaliers or 65-loss Denver Nuggets.