Ivan Johnson Fined, Sent Home for ‘Conduct Detrimental to the Team’


The Atlanta Hawks fined Ivan Johnson and sent him home from Orlando today, but he’s expected to rejoin the team on Saturday for practice. Reports the AJC: “Hawks coach Larry Drew declined to expand on the disciplinary action, or the reason for it, following this morning’s shoot-around. ‘We made a decision to discipline him by sending him home, fining him and we will move on,’ Drew said. Johnson, a 27-year-old NBA rookie, has had issues in the past. He washed out after one season of run-ins with coach Ernie Kent at Oregon. After one year at Division II Cal State-San Bernardino, Johnson played a season in the NBA Development League before joining the Korean Basketball League. That opportunity ended last year when the KBL banned Johnson after he reportedly made an obscene gesture at a game official. He headed back to the D-League where he was good enough to be named first-team all-league, but volatile enough to lead the league in technical fouls. Johnson’s coach with the Erie BayHawks eventually benched him for his behavior. ‘With me, no it’s not a concern,’ Drew said of Johnson’s documented disciplinary issues. ‘Isolated incident. If it were anybody else we would have taken the same measure. I spoke to him before he left. We had a good conversation. It was like I told him, we will do what we have to do. He will miss tonight’s game. We will see him when we get back to Atlanta. We are moving on.'”