Marcus Camby admitted yesterday his Martin Luther King Day attack on Danny Ferry was “uncalled for,” adding he was “truly in the wrong.”
Sporting a bloodshot right eye and cuts over both eyes that required glue-based stitches, Camby also apologized to his teammates, Jeff Van Gundy and the young fans who attended the Knicks’ 104-82 rout of San Antonio. But Camby denied he was trying to get it on again with Ferry after the game in the tunnel where opposing players pass on the way to the team bus.
League disciplinarian Stu Jackson, a friend of Van Gundy’s, will decide on the length of Camby’s suspension today. One of the factors will be determining whether Camby had bad intentions in the tunnel as well as in his decision to pick up a chair while he left the floor in a wild rage, a league source said.
While it is speculated Camby could get up to five games, anything more than 3-to-4 games would go against recent league precedent. Charles Oakley only got three games for his premeditated punchout of Jeff McInnis at a Clippers’ shootaround in December.
Regarding punching incidents over the past two years, Shaquille O’Neal got one game for throwing a punch at Charles Barkley, Kurt Thomas got two games for taking a swing at Pacers’ Jalen Rose, and Chris Childs got two games for his left cross to Kobe Bryant’s chin.
“Whatever [the league] gives me, I was wrong for reacting the way I did,” a contrite Camby said yesterday at Purchase College. “I was truly, truly in the wrong despite what he did to me first. It was a stupid thing on my part reacting the way I did.
“I was disappointed that what happened took away from what we accomplished,” Camby added. “It was great team win. It was sad the incident overshadowed that.”
Camby confirmed he charged Ferry once things quieted only after he realized he was bleeding above the left eye from Ferry’s elbow and slap in the eye.
“When I saw the blood, it was a quick reaction that came over me and that’s out of character for me,” Camby said. “When I saw the blood, it was the thing that really ticked me. When I saw the blood, it was ‘bam.'”
With Ferry’s back to him, Camby charged the Spurs’ forward and took a wild swing at him. He missed with the round-house right but accidentally head-butted Van Gundy. After the game, Camby loitered in the tunnel for about 20 minutes, surrounded by Garden security. A Knick official tried to warn Camby about further violence when the still-enraged Knicks 6-11 center shouted him down, telling him he was waiting for his friends.
Camby said yesterday he wanted to make sure his Hartford buddies would not try to initiate a rumble and also attributed his delay of leaving the arena to his car being blocked in by a Garden pickup truck that had a flat tire. The league should know that radio reports that Camby waited right outside the team bus for Ferry were inaccurate. He was waiting for his car to get unblocked.
“I wasn’t waiting for Danny [in the tunnel],” Camby said. “There were 10-15 guys from back home [in Hartford] who were there. My object was to calm those guys down. I know I couldn’t do anything. There were 30 security guards right there. My car was blocked. People thought I was waiting to start something.”
Garden president Dave Checketts and GM Scott Layden also tried to coax Camby out of the tunnel, but Camby didn’t budge for a while. The Knicks were concerned Camby had bad intentions so they had assistant coach Don Chaney tell a Spurs official to have Ferry leave in a different direction for the bus.
Thereafter, Checketts and Garden security escorted Camby, two friends and Camby’s business manager Rick Kaplan to Camby’s car, at which point Checketts helped try to move the disabled Garden vehicle.
“To see Checketts push that car away from mine to get me out of there was a funny thing,” Camby said. “Dave even offered to take me home, which was a good gesture.”
Camby was interviewed by NBA security Monday night and yesterday morning. Regarding picking up a chair, Camby said, “It was out of frustration. I wasn’t going to do anything with it. I picked it up and slammed it down.”
Although the Knicks didn’t practice yesterday, Camby showed up at Purchase College to talk with Van Gundy. Camby never spoke to his teammates after the game because he was in a hurry to get to the hallway. Several of his mates called him Monday night.
Camby is afraid Ferry’s slap aggravated his pink-eye disease that has afflicted him for two years. Camby will see an eye doctor Friday when the Knicks play in Detroit, a game Camby automatically misses for throwing a punch.