Renaldo Balkman banned for choking teammate

Former NBA player Renaldo Balkman will be looking for a new country to play in after the Philippine Basketball Association fined and banned him from playing in the league for life for choking a teammate.

The Philippine Basketball Association announced that Balkman was fined 250,000 Philippine pesos (about $6,140) for "initiating threatening physical contact with a referee followed by a prolonged, offensive, belligerent if not aberrant on-court decorum directed toward game officials and his Petron teammates and superiors."

Balkman apologized for the incident and only played seven games in the PBA.

Part of a statement from the league reads:

In arriving at this decision, I took into consideration Balkman's track record as a player, including the head-butting incident during a FIBA-Americas game between Puerto Rico and Venezuela and his altercation with the bench of the Alaska Aces during a pre-Season game in Cebu City. I also took into consideration Balkman's evident disregard for local and the host country's sensibilities highlighted by his choking act on-court in full public view of his own teammate who was trying to pacify him. Stiff as it may be, this decision upholds the tenets of contextual accountability and the over-all interest of the League and the fans.