Dwyane Wade denied rumblings that he’s a “dirty player” after he was suspended by the NBA for a game for kicking the Charlotte Bobcats’ Ramon Sessions in the groin in a play in which Sessions was called for a foul, not Wade.
In the fourth quarter of the Miami Heat’s 105-92 over Charlotte Wednesday, Wade brought the ball up the left sideline, Sessions stepped up to defend him. He impeded Wade’s move to the right by reaching in for the ball and Wade’s left leg flailed into the air and right into Sessions’ lower extremities.
He went down, writhing in pain. It surely hurt more when he learned the foul was called against him.
If you did not know any better, you would think Wade extended his leg to intentionally kick Sessions. No one can argue that it did not look that way. And apparently Stu Jackson, the league’s executive vice president in charge of dispensing punishment, saw it that way, too, because he slapped Wade with the suspension. So he will miss Friday night’s game in Detroit against the Pistons.
Sessions surely thought it was a cheap shot. “I thought he did it on purpose, and it wasn’t called,” Sessions said after the game.
Wade heard the talk of it being a dirty play and of him being a dirty player and he did not like it. So, he addressed it on Twitter with indignation.
“I’m far from being a dirty player + my intent was never 2 kick Ramon Sessions,” Wade tweeted Thursday night. “I just reacted to the contact that I got from him…. More than anything, I think of my boys watchin me be4 retaliating 2ward any player. Im moving 4ward + ready 2 get back on the court in MIL.”
Wade did not appeal the suspension, which could say something about intent. Or it could be that he understands how the play looked and is accepting the league’s ruling.
