Phoenix — Practice was over, and Derrick Coleman, dressed head-to-toe in black, had one thing to say about his one-game suspension and $7,500 fine by the NBA on Monday for his actions against the Utah Jazz on Saturday:
"They're coming to Philly," the 76ers forward said. "I'm going to get my money's worth."
The Jazz will visit on Feb. 14.
In addition to Coleman's punishment, the NBA fined coach Larry Brown $7,500 for his comments about the officiating in the Utah game, in which Coleman, Jazz forward Donyell Marshall, and Sixers reserve Corie Blount were ejected in separate instances. Among other things, Brown called the lead official, Ron Garretson, "a mute" who ruined the game.
Coleman was tossed from the game because, in the NBA's estimation, he threw a punch at Karl Malone after the two had gotten tangled up under the Jazz' basket. Brown said he did not characterize what Coleman did as a punch, and he was irritated that Stu Jackson, the NBA's senior vice president of basketball operations, did not call him to discuss the matter.
Brown said the NBA acted on "the letter of the law. They're saying it was a punch."
The Sixers' coach saw a replay of the incident. Asked whether it looked like a punch, he said, "Not to me. He just threw his arm out. They were a great distance apart. Malone threw his arm back, and Derrick went back at him when he did that."
"It's terrible," said the Sixers' Allen Iverson, who was on the court during the encounter. "I didn't think it was a punch. I've got to see a replay."
Coleman will lose 1/82nd of his pay because of the suspension.
"I never got to speak to the head guy," Brown said Monday, referring to Jackson, after the Sixers practiced at the America West Arena, where they will play the Phoenix Suns Wednesday.
"That irks me," he said. "My big thing is I said something, so I paid the consequences." The action against Coleman "was not justified."
"If they can strangle a guy, and throw a guy to the ground and beat a guy's head against the floor and nothing's done, then tell me Derrick had intent on hurting a guy, there's something wrong," he said. "So I'm disappointed."
Brown was referring to an incident against the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas. The Lakers' Robert Horry wrapped an arm around Matt Harpring's neck and pulled him to the ground. The referee whistled Horry for a personal foul, then assessed both players technicals. Brown thought Horry should have gotten a flagrant foul.
In the locker room after the Sixers lost to the Lakers, Coleman quipped that had he been Horry, the official "probably would have ejected me."
"He would have been out for a month, are you kidding?" Brown said Monday.
Brown has emerged in rumors surrounding the future of the Nuggets, the team he first coached in the NBA in 1976-77.
Brown knows that were he to so choose, he could get involved with the Nuggets, who have made Mike Evans their interim coach after making a settlement with Dan Issel. But as Brown said Friday night, he again insisted he is more than happy with the Sixers, that he is fond of Philadelphia and that he is respectful of Sixers chairman of the board Ed Snider.
"I don't think I should have to keep commenting about that," he said Sunday. Browns is over the spasms in his neck and left shoulder that caused him to miss the game against the Nuggets. An electrocardiogram showed nothing more serious.
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