David Harrison: Brawling Center

David Harrison is fairly new to the NBA.  He hasn’t had much time in the limelight to get in trouble, yet.  Judging by his choices so far, he just might be a candidate to watch for NBA thughood though. 

The Indiana Pacers signed him in the 2004 Draft.  A whopping 7 feet tall, he is ideal for the center position.  As a student at University of Colorado, Boulder he won a few awards including his place as all time leading shot blocker for the university with a total of 225 blocks while he was there.

Most rookies start out there careers in the second or third spot for their position, meaning  the older and more seasoned veterans get to play in the starting line up.  Several events happened to push Harrison to the front of the line with the Pacers, giving him the unique chance to be in the starting line up as a rookie, playing 14 out of 43 games as starting center. 

First, Scott Pollard was injured, and removed from the starting line up to recover.  Then, Jermaine O’Neal, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest were suspended for several games. This gave Harrison a chance to shine early on in his career.  He was sidelined for the last few weeks of the season due to an injury.  In his second season with the team he played in 67 games, only starting 17 – all of the “star” players were back on active court time by then.

He has gotten some good face time in the media in spite of his raw rookie status. This is thanks largely to his friendship with MJ, a participant in MTV’s television “reality” show The Real World.  Because they were friends, Harrison agreed to guest star on the show for an episode or two, getting him recognition among a young fan base.

In spite of his still-new NBA status, Harrison has already managed to get into trouble.  In a highly publicized, televised brawl between Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, Harrison had no trouble tossing his hat in with his team mates, joining the fray.  He was charged with assault and battery (one count) by the courts. The NBA did not punish him for the incident.

A year later he was fined by the NBA for an incident involving a picture.  Having seen less than 15 minutes of court time as of October 2005, he chose to vent his frustration by destroying NBA property.  The NBA has a no tolerance policy for property destruction.  The funny thing about the incident was the picture he destroyed was of himself.