Lue suspended for a game for punching Najera

[V2M]

From Yahoo Sports
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Lue suspended for a game for punching Najera
March 2, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- Atlanta Hawks guard Tyronn Lue was suspended by the NBA on Wednesday for one game after he punched Denver forward Eduardo Najera during a loss to the Nuggets on Tuesday night.

Lue is expected to serve his suspension when Atlanta visits the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

With 5:50 left against Denver, Lue got tossed for punching Najera after the Nuggets' big man stole the ball. The 6-foot Lue took two roundhouse shots at the 6-8 forward -- enough to get him ejected, but not even close to enough to get a rise out of Najera.

``Why would I want to pick a fight with a little guy,'' Najera said after the game. ``It's not fair.''

Lue declined comment after the game.

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Only one game for punching someone? Also, pretty cool comment from Najera. He's a true Maverick product. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Bookit]

I bet Najera can get under your skin. [img]i/expressions/anim_laugh.gif[/img]

[Ninkobei]

Ouch, "little guy" thats great. Makes me miss Najera.

[mary]

Originally posted by: Ninkobei
Ouch, "little guy" thats great. Makes me miss Najera.

I'm right there with ya. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Azn_Baller101]

anyone think cuban will make a push for najera in the offseason like he told eddie. i don't know how that works though, hendu goes to il? blegh. i miss eddie. but i hope cuban or nellie dont go after him in the offseason.

[Dirkenstien]

Great quote from Eddie. Kinda miss the lad

[dude1394]

Agreed... I miss him too. Feisty....

[Murphy3]

I miss his one defensive rebound a game.

It won't be long before he's out of the NBA....I can't wait.

[sike]

funny

[Murphy3]

Originally posted by: Azn_Baller101
anyone think cuban will make a push for najera in the offseason like he told eddie. i don't know how that works though, hendu goes to il? blegh. i miss eddie. but i hope cuban or nellie dont go after him in the offseason.

The Mavs are loaded at the 3 & 4 spots. There is no use for Najera.

[Caliente]

Najera plays to receptive audience
Hustle pays big dividends for Mexico's second NBA player, whom Denver has welcomed with open arms

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News
March 3, 2005

Eduardo Najera looked up and saw a Mexican flag. He saw a sign bearing the message bienvenido, which means "welcome" in Spanish.

One home game and Najera already is at home in Denver.

"It just feels great," the new Denver Nuggets forward said. "Denver has great fans. I was pleased with the reception."

Najera, acquired Feb. 24 from the Golden State Warriors, made his Pepsi Center debut as a member of the Nuggets on Tuesday in Denver's 97-74 win against the Atlanta Hawks.

Najera drew the biggest cheers with a gritty outing in a reserve role in which he totaled 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in 25 minutes in his third game with the team.

OK, so maybe Najera's No. 21 Nuggets jersey will not be as big a seller as Carmelo Anthony's No. 15 or Kenyon Martin's No. 6. But it has become quite apparent the Mexico native is going to be big news in Denver, a city with a population that is one-third Hispanic.

"People are excited," said LeRoy Lemos, a Latino community activist who says more than half the Hispanics in Denver are of Mexican origin. "He's going to absolutely help the Denver Nuggets tap further into creating a relationship with the Denver Mexican community."

That relationship was at an all-time low in December 2001. Coach Dan Issel had been forced to resign after being caught on camera telling a heckling spectator, "Have another beer, you Mexican piece of (bleep)."

Najera is only the second Mexican to play in the NBA and the first to wear a Nuggets uniform. Lemos said his arrival helps the healing process.

"It's still recent history," Lemos said. "We agreed to forgive but never forget. But I think Kroenke Sports (which owns the Nuggets) is building another bridge to Denver's Latino community (by acquiring Najera)."

A popular guy

During his five years in the NBA, Najera has been embraced not just by Hispanics but by all fans. When he played for the Dallas Mavericks from 2000-04, he often heard as many cheers as Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and then-Mavericks guard Steve Nash.

"Eddie is a first-class guy," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said by e-mail. "The fans love him, his teammates love him. We really miss having him around."

Najera provided energy as a reserve for several strong Dallas teams before Cuban reluctantly agreed to include him in a trade with Golden State in August that brought the Mavericks center Erick Dampier. But Najera, who has compiled career averages of 4.8 points and 3.7 rebounds, never flourished with the Warriors and his playing time was sporadic.

Najera, 28, said the Warriors tried to get him to be more of a perimeter player and shoot three-pointers. It didn't work out and he was shipped to the Nuggets with rookie guard Luis Flores and a likely 2007 first-round draft choice for forwards Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White, neither of whom could get off the bench with the Nuggets.

"It's a great pickup," Nuggets coach George Karl. "It's a high-class trade. . . . Kiki's got a great pulse."

That would be Kiki Vandeweghe, the Nuggets' general manager. He was a player-development coach who worked closely with Najera when he was a Dallas rookie in 2000-01.

"He was always a hustle guy," Vandeweghe said. "He banged around and just outworked everybody else. That's what I like about him. . . . If you play that hard, there's a place for you, at least on one of my teams."

A tall order

Until the early 1990s, Najera was not on anybody's team. Raised in the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua, soccer and baseball were his first loves.

But Najera kept growing. By the time he was 15, he was a surprising 6-foot-5.

"You don't see a lot of tall people in Mexico," said Najera, whose father is 6-foot, his mother 5-6 and who has five brothers and one sister who are all much shorter than he is. "I have no idea where my height came from. I did hear that I had a great-great-grandfather on my mother's side that was probably taller than me."

While 15 and walking around his high school one day, Najera was seen by a coach who invited him to join the basketball team. Najera, who had not played the sport much as a youngster, agreed, although the initial reviews were not overwhelming.

"I was very uncoordinated," Najera said. "I was very skinny. I had to start from the bottom."

With his work ethic, it was not long before Najera reached the top. Within two years, he was one of the best players in the area.

"I didn't have a lot of competition," Najera said. "I scored a bunch of points. The game was so easy for me, but I learned a lot from trying to play with older people."

While dominating Mexican leagues, Najera was spotted by a coach at San Antonio's Cornerstone Christian Academy. He invited Najera to come to the United States in fall 1994 for his senior year of high school.

Though Mexico is a country with great poverty, Najera said he grew up "middle class," his father working as an official at a water plant. So his family was able to scrape up enough money to send him to school at San Antonio.

That is when Najera really was noticed. After Najera averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds as a senior, Duke, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and New Mexico recruited him.

A second language

"A lot of people thought he was going to New Mexico because of the Hispanic population there," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. "But I think one of the reasons he came to Oklahoma is he wanted to go somewhere where he was really going to learn English."

When Najera signed with the Sooners in spring 1995, his English skills were poor.

Being unable to initially score high enough on the ACT, he enrolled in Oklahoma in fall 1995 as a part-time student and redshirted his first season.

"He took the test countless times," said Sampson, recalling more than a half-dozen efforts. "It would be like you going to France, and then learning in one year enough French to pass the entrance exam.

"I'll never forget when he passed. If he ever plays in an NBA All-Star Game, that will be second to what happened in December 1995. I remember him walking into my office with a piece of paper in his hand, yelling, 'Coach, coach. I passed.' "

Najera then offered a prediction.

"He sat in a chair looking at me and said, 'I'm going to be the first (Mexican) in the NBA,' " Sampson said.

It turned out that did not happen. Center Horatio Llamas, a good friend of Najera's, played 20 games for the Phoenix Suns in 1996-97 and eight in 1997-98, averaging 2.1 points.

But Najera clearly has become the best Mexican player. And he got started on that road at Oklahoma.

Najera was 6-7, 210 pounds when he entered college. By the time he was a senior, he had grown an inch, picked up 30 pounds and averaged 18.4 points and 9.2 rebounds.

Down and dirty

Najera was drafted by the Houston Rockets in the second round in 2000, then was shipped to Dallas. He made an immediate impact with the Mavericks, who needed a player willing to do the dirty work.

"He's just a guy who plays hard," said Nuggets guard Greg Buckner, a Dallas teammate from 2000 to 2002. "He gets his nose dirty. Everybody (in Denver) is going to appreciate him, from (owner Stan) Kroenke on down."

After his second year with the Mavericks, Cuban rewarded Najera with a six-year, $24 million deal. While sitting in Cuban's office, the ink still wet on the contract, Najera called Sampson to thank him for his help.

With his big contract, Najera has begun a foundation. While many details still are in the developmental stage, he wants to use the money and influence to help Mexican youngsters hone their basketball skills.

"I hope so," he said of serving as inspiration in his homeland. "The thing that I tell them is that I'm not the most talented guy. A lot of people thought I wouldn't make it in the NBA, so I proved a lot of people wrong. The message is that it's just a matter of wanting to be here."

It's a message Najera soon will pass on to Colorado youths.

"I want to get out to hospitals and schools," he said. "There are a lot of kids out there that need motivation. I want to put on some free clinics and try to teach them some basketball, especially Mexicans. They only know about soccer. It's amazing that when I do a free clinic, they don't really know how to play the game. There are 30 million of us in the United States, so I assume that a few can be very good in basketball."

After all, Najera would like some company from his homeland in the NBA.

[mavsman55]

Originally posted by: Bookit
I bet Najera can get under your skin. [img]i/expressions/anim_laugh.gif[/img]

Exactly how many players hate Najera at this point?