NBA Suspends Marcus Smart Three Games for Punching Warriors Center Charles Bassey

The NBA has suspended Houston Rockets guard Marcus Smart for three games without pay for throwing a punch that connected with the face of Golden State Warriors center Charles Bassey, the league announced Thursday.

The discipline came from James Jones, the NBA's executive vice president and head of basketball operations, who oversees player discipline. Smart begins serving the suspension Friday night when the Rockets host the Utah Jazz, and he will also miss road games at Washington on Sunday and at Miami on Monday, according to the Associated Press and ESPN. The three games will cost him roughly $125,500 in salary, the AP reported.

The incident came with 21 seconds left in the third quarter of Houston's 115-108 win over Golden State on Wednesday night. After Smart and Bassey became tangled up, Smart went after the Warriors center and swung at him; ESPN described the blow as a right hook that grazed Bassey's nose. Officials reviewed the play and called a Flagrant 2 foul, which carries an automatic ejection, and crew chief Mitchell Ervin said afterward that the replay showed contact to the nose, the AP reported.

Bassey did not hide his frustration afterward. He said Smart had been "playing dirty the whole game," CBS Sports reported. He also told reporters he was not surprised by the swing and dismissed it as fake toughness, according to the AP.

Rockets coach Ime Udoka offered his player's side of the story. Udoka said Smart felt challenged after the two got tangled, and that Bassey had asked Smart what he was going to do about it before the punch, the AP reported. Smart did not comment publicly in the initial reports on the suspension.

This is not the first time Smart's temper has cost him games. The AP noted that he was suspended one game in 2015, while playing for Boston, for striking San Antonio's Matt Bonner below the belt, and another game in 2021 for directing threatening language at a game official. He has also been fined at least 12 other times, including a $50,000 fine in 2019 for shoving Joel Embiid, when the league pointed to his repeated unsportsmanlike conduct.

That record sits beside real accomplishment. Smart is a former Defensive Player of the Year and Hustle Award winner, and he was an NBA Cares honoree in 2022 for his work in the community, according to the AP. CBS Sports described him as a key guard for Houston.

Marcus Smart has built a long career on doing the dirty work most players avoid: diving on the floor, guarding the other team's best scorer, taking charges. That fire is exactly why coaches love him, and it is exactly why moments like Wednesday night are so costly. The same edge that wins loose balls cannot be allowed to turn into a fist.

The league got this one right. Three games is a meaningful penalty for a veteran who has been warned before, and it sends a clear message to the millions of young players who watch these games and copy what they see. Scripture puts it plainly: the one who rules his own spirit is stronger than the one who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32). The best competitors in any sport play with passion and still keep their hands to themselves. Smart has shown for years that he can be that player, and Houston needs him to be that player when he returns.

The Warriors left Houston with bigger worries than a scuffle. Stephen Curry exited with 6:25 remaining in the first quarter and did not return, the New York Post reported. The team has since confirmed a torn oblique in his abdomen and said he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. The injury cut short a hot stretch in which Curry had scored 34, 29, 41 and 25 points, according to the Post.

Houston must now get through a home date with Utah and a two-game road swing without one of its toughest defenders. Smart is eligible to return after the Miami game. Golden State, meanwhile, faces the harder road: two weeks before its franchise star is even re-evaluated, and a reminder that a season can turn in a single night.