At some point on Tuesday night, Jordan Bell made a purchase at the Warriors’ team hotel here. The exact item or items and amount of the bill is unclear. What isn’t, though, is who got unknowingly charged for it: assistant coach Mike Brown.
That, league sources say, was the reason for his team-issued one-game suspension, which Bell served during the Warriors’ 118-103 victory over the Grizzlies on Wednesday night, the reasoning announced officially as “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Brown was alerted to the charge. He inquired about it. The staff at The Peabody hotel, where the team stayed, confirmed its purchase. So the Warriors launched a quick investigation and it became clear that Bell is the one who put it on Brown’s bill. There was concern, sources say, that this wasn’t the first time Bell has pulled this maneuver on some unknowing member of the organization.
On NBA road trips, rooms are paid for by the franchise. But hotel incidentals — snacks, drinks, movies, whatever — get charged to a personal card, considered part of the employee’s road per diem. So, prank or not, Brown would’ve been on the hook for Bell’s charge, not the company.
The staff deemed the violation worthy of a one-game suspension. The Warriors announced it in a vague 36-word press release just after 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday, dragging the discipline into the public sphere but trying to keep the reasoning private.