Chapter 613: They are Committing Murder

New York. NBA headquarters.

A TV hung on the wall of the meeting room. It was playing the fight scene between Osef and Terry.

“They were really fighting. We need to punish them even though the game was already over.”

“As per the standard operating procedure, we need to treat them like players who fought in-game and dole out match bans then!”

“There’s definitely going to be a match ban. The question here is just how many matches should we ban them from? After all, this brawl took place after the game. The punishment cannot be too heavy, but it can’t be too light either. If this punishment is worse that the punishment for fighting during games, it will upset the public.”

“We’ve had similar situations before, right? I remember we punished players for a brawl inside the locker room last season. We can refer to the punishment during that incident.”

The people inside the meeting room discussed the punishment that awaited Osef and Terry.

Although the brawl did not take place during a game, the league still had to hand out match bans to the players who took part in the fight.

Similar incidents had happened before. For example, sometimes after games ended, players would have physical conflicts after returning to the locker room. Some players even got into fights inside the tunnel and physical conflicts that happened after players got on to the bus. Playes got bloodied during fights wasn’t uncommon. Once, there was even an all-star player who pulled out a gun in one spat. Concerning these incidents, the NBA handed out match bans as punishment.

Situations like this, where players fought on the court after the match had ended, should be more serious than fights that occurred inside the locker rooms; however, they were less serious than a fights that happened during a game. When it came to punishment, it would also be less severe than a brawl during the game.

On the screen of the TV, Osef clearly had the advantage. The few punches that Terry threw out were either dodged or blocked by Osef while Osef’s fists hit Terry’s face firmly.

“Osef! This fella sure can fight! Terry is bigger than him, but he can’t beat him,” someone exclaimed in surprise.

“He’s from Queens, New York. Of course, he knows how to fight,” another person replied.

“It’s a good thing some of the players hadn’t returned to the locker room. They went to stop them!” A third person said.

On the TV screen, the journalists surrounded them and recorded everything in a frenzy. They hoped more than anything that the fight between the two would escalate. As for the players and coaches of both teams who had not yet left the court, they quickly moved towards them with the intention of stopping the fight.

The conflict was different from those normally seen on the court.

Players would trash talk on the court and have all kinds of sneaky and dirty moves. There might even be bad calls. These were all reasons that fights happened. Sometimes, when players with a temper became the victim of a trick move and felt humiliated, they would directly start a fight. Faced with this type of situation, teammates might not move to help disperse the fight. On the contrary, they might even go up and help out to express the kinship between teammates and the cohesiveness of the team.

But Osef and Terry fought because of a woman. No teammate would help for such a reason. Apart from the two of them, the other people had zero interest in that woman. Perhaps if they were interested, it would only be biologically. So no one went to help their teammate, they only went to try to stop the fight.

The thing was that the people who went to stop the fight moved cautiously. The two fighters were big guys, both very tall. If the thick arms and massive fists accidentally hit them, it would be disastrous. Just imagining it hurt.

“Stop fighting! You guys, stop fighting!” A woman screamed from the side anxiously. She was Osef’s ex-wife, Terry’s current wife.

It was bad when she had not screamed. Once she screamed, the fight between the two worsened. Terry knew that he was losing; moreover, his woman saw the entire thing. So he was even more inclined not to give up, he wrestled free from the person who tried to stop him without any hesitation and rushed towards Osef.

Osef was also not from about to stop. He won, so he needed to show the dignity of a winner. He posed in front of his ex-wife.

So, the two men tangled together again. The others could not stop them if they tried.

In the meeting room, the video played until that point, and someone could not keep it in anymore. “I thought they stopped the fight. It started again! This should warrant for more severe punishment, right?”

“Look, the coach of the Clippers is headed over. You still have to depend on the head coach for stopping fights after all!”

On the TV screen, Dai Li rushed towards them excitedly. He looked as if he was going to stop the fight. His hand, however, moved and pushed away the two players who were trying to stop the fight.

Then, Osef and Terry tangled together and fought again. Terry’s eye took another blow.

In the meeting room, someone said, “That doesn’t seem right. Why do I feel like the head coach of the Clippers isn’t trying to stop the fight? He’s just there to side with his player!”

…

“The league has decided the punishment. Osef is banned for three matches,” Cassel passed a fax to Dai Li. It was the league’s decision on Osef’s punishment.

“Then what about Terry from the Cavaliers?” Dai Li asked.

“Same. Also a three-match ban.” Cassel paused and continued, “The league basically just divided the punishment into two.”

“Oh, then we’re on the winning side. After all, Osef won the fight. He gave Terry several blows,” Dai Li said, smiling.

Cassel hesitated for a few seconds. “It looks like you aren’t going to hand out any internal punishment to Osef?”

“Yes, I don’t intend to punish him. You should have already guessed that. You saw the way I tried to ‘stop’ the fight.” The smile on Dai Li’s face became even brighter.

“You still have the guts to actually say that that was a move to stop the fight? You were clearly helping one side! If you did not do that, Terry could have at least avoided two punches,” Cassel complained.

“Osef needed to vent.” Dai Li waved his fingers and said, “Men. It is better to fight and vent out the emotion stuck in the chest than to keep it all bottled up inside.”

“You make it seem logical.” Cassel nodded and then said mockingly, “Looks like you are very experienced.”

“Get lost, I’ve never been cheated on before!” Dai Li exclaimed.

Cassel changed his tone. “For the next three games, we won’t have Osef. Our bench will be affected.”

“We’re playing consecutive away games, it is acceptable to lose a few. In the upcoming three games, if we can win just one we’ll have two wins and two losses. It is an acceptable result.” Dai Li looked calm. He continued, “Moreover, Noel already received his sixth medical report from the hospital. Everything is normal. Based on the agreement with the league, he only needs to submit six months of the medical report to prove that he is healthy enough to return to the court. So, I plan to let him make his return in the next home game!”

…

The sixth medical report was placed on the table of the president of the NBA, Adams. It was the medical report of Noel in the most recent six months.

Although Adams was not a professional doctor, he could still understand the contents of the medical report.

“This means that he has recovered from his disease?” Adams pointed at the medical reports on his table.

“To be precise, the problem of the blood clot has been solved. At the moment, it seems like there are no symptoms for a relapse,” a man wearing spectacles cross from him said. He was a famous medical professor in the U.S. He was also one of the medical consultants for the NBA.

“This means that he can play now?” Adams continued asking.

“Based on the data in the medical reports, he is much healthier than your average Joe. He can definitely play,” the medical professor said.

Hearing this, Adams frowned. He seemed hesitant.

From a medical perspective, as long as a blood clot disappeared an athlete’s life was no longer in danger. Taking anticoagulation drugs could achieve this. The only thing was that anticoagulation drugs had side effects, like constant bleeding from a wound or increased vulnerability to get internal bleeding from intensive sports.

If it were not a sport with intense physical contact, taking the anticoagulation drug would solve an athlete’s problem without any adverse effects. Basketball was different. It required intense physical contact, so they had to prove that players had no problem after taking anticoagulation drugs. If a player faced the problem with anticoagulation drugs and still played, it was no different from committing suicide.

Naturally, the NBA could not allow players to commit suicide. It was this reason that, after it was discovered that Chris Noel had a blood clot, he was banned from all NBA fixtures.

Blood clots formed because of a lack of anticoagulation hormone. This meant that the body had a disability. Based on the athlete’s patch fixing anything that was missing, it was natural that he recovered.

To the NBA president, Adams, it was a headache. If the blood clot in Noel was not completely solved and he allowed him to play, then if something happened the NBA would have to bear all responsibility.

In the past few years, the NBA had been successful in promoting the brand worldwide. The NBA had also been paying more attention to their image. If a scandal occurred now, years of hard work would have been wasted.

Adams also understood blood clots. It was a common disease among players. It was a functional disorder. Fundamentally, it could not be cured. It was even listed as one of the incurable diseases.

As such, Adams did not believe that Noel would recover. When he requested for six months of medical reports, it was just to delay him. Adams did not really think that Noel could stay healthy for six months.

Noel really brought six months of medical reports, though. The reports showed that his coagulation functioned normally. He had long stopped taking the prescribed anticoagulation drugs and his body did not show any symptoms of a relapse. Although it did not mean that Noel had recovered, it did satisfy the requirements set by Adams before.

“If I knew that this was going to happen, I would have asked for a year’s worth of medical reports!” Adams sighed. Words were said, however, and he could not go back on his words.

Adams signed his name on the document in resignation. He knew that it was a risky move. If Noel had a relapse, he would be accused by the entire country.

…

Chris Noel also used to be a superstar. His return immediately caught the attention of the media in the U.S. Everyone focused on Los Angeles.

The Clippers released several photographs of Noel taking part in team training and announced to the media that Chris Noel would be featured in the next home game as a starting power forward.

Most people were not interested in the personnel arrangement of the Clippers. Most people wanted to know about Noel’s health situation.

After all, blood clots were lethal to athletes. They flowed through the blood. If they moved to the blood vessels of the lung or the heart, it could cause a pulmonary embolism or Myocardial infarction.

If one took anticoagulation drugs to dissolve the blood clots, it would affect the body’s ability to stop bleeding. In the NBA, intense physical contact was inevitable. If internal bleeding occurred due to a collision, it could be lethal.

So to preserve the life of an athlete, players with impaired blood function, like Noel, should stay as far away from NBA games as possible. The best situation for them was to be a good audience, they should not even try becoming a coach.

Noel, however, was going to make a comeback. In the eyes of most people, he was playing with his life on the line.

…

The following day, an article with the following title appeared in a newspaper:

“The Los Angeles Clippers are basically committing murder!”