The Denver Nuggets have rescinded the two-game suspension of veteran guard Andre Miller, although he will remain away from the team until Monday reports ESPN.com.
The guard was originally suspended by the Nuggets for conduct detrimental to the team for his verbal confrontation with rookie coach Brian Shaw in the final minutes of the team's 114-102 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night. The loss was the eight straight for the Nuggets, and the verbal altercation was made in full view of Nuggets players and fans. Miller was reportedly angry that he was benched by Shaw, the first DNP of his 15-year career.
In a brief statement released Friday, Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said that Miller would rejoin the team on Monday. He also said that until then, Miller would be excused from all team activities for personal reasons.
Before the Nuggets played the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night, Shaw said that the team decided to lift the suspension and likened it to a 'cooling off' period.
"It's a personal matter and what we wanted to happen was him basically be away from the team for a few days," Shaw said. "The crux of it is the incident that took place, everybody understands that can't happen, and because of that, he'll get time to attend to some personal matters."
Although the coach had not made any contact with the veteran guard, Shaw said too much had been made about the issue. "Really, I thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion. In the heat of the moment, sometimes players say things to coaches, sometimes coaches say things to players. What we try to get to happen is have it happen in the locker room, behind closed doors, within the group."
He continued: "It started out on the court and that's what brought attention to it. As far as I'm concerned, it's not a big deal. It really doesn't. I've had the utmost respect for Andre since he was at the University of Utah. Just an unfortunate incident, we're moving on from it."
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