http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/02/05/j-r-smith-tagged-with-punishment-for-an-on-court-offense-huh-something-new-every-day/

The difference is that Griffin sells adds and merchandise for the NBA while J.R. Smith does not. It’s the same reason Kevin Garnet didn’t get suspended for the Lakers game after his cheap shot to Channing Fry’s, ahem, basketballs.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/01/29/kevin-garnett-wont-be-suspended-for-hitting-channing-frye-in-the-junk-because-that-makes-sense/

The NBA has no class anymore; it’s been replaced by greed. The last game I went to it was supposedly Diabetes Awareness Night then they proceeded to give away a years supply of McDonald’s food to the winner of a father-son trike race after the first quarter. Kind of missed the point there, where do people think childhood diabetes comes from? Not only that, but during the national anthem they actually projected the Wells Fargo logo on the court right next to the color guard. For god’s sake, don’t commercialize the national anthem.

No class. Excessive greed. Lockout assured.

Yeah, I’m pretty surprised that’s a flagrant. When you go up like that, arms extended high, and then are falling to the ground, your natural reaction is to bring your arms down. Unfortunately, Horford was between him and the court, and it seems to me Griffin’s arms just came down through Horford in trying to brace his own slam into the court. It looks a little worse because Griffin sort of keeps his arms extended, but I think that’s because of the tendency to want to show the refs you were extending your arms straight, so when he lands, it looks like he was deliberately trying to slam Horford down. You or I, though, might have bent our elbows on the way down, out of self-preservation, and have actually driven a hand right into the gut of Horford…which would’ve been much worse. But Griffin tries to maintain the impression of extended arms, and it ends up looking worse. Griffin actually took more of a beating the way he did it than he would have if he’d tried harder to brace his own collision with the floor.