Charlie Villanueva fined $25K, called dirty player by (not that) Isaiah Thomas

Charlie Villanueva, the Detroit Pistons power forward who unexpectedly and inexplicably matters again in Motown, has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for the flagrant 2 foul against Isaiah Thomas in Tuesday's victory over the Sacramento Kings.

While you can judge for yourself with the video below (maybe watch it on mute, MFMP) it seemed to most people in the game thread that calling a flagrant 2 in that situation was probably a little overzealous, however, when a 5-foot-9 player skies to the rim and you knock him off his path it can look pretty ugly and be pretty dangerous. As the video shows Thomas (no relation even in spelling to Isiah Thomas) was none too happy with CV, and charged after the boxing fanatic with no regard for his personal safety.

Villanueva got a cheap shove in before DeMarcus Cousins played peacemaker (no, really) and the players were separated.

But Thomas elaborated on the incident after the game and his mood hadn't cooled:

The Kings said it wasn't the first hard foul by Villanueva. Thomas said the fact he was airborne on the play wasn't the worst part for him.

"No, it was just the fact that it was a dirty play and he's a dirty player," Thomas said. "It is what it is. He got kicked out of the game, so it wasn't nothing big. A lot of guys do stuff like that knowing you can't really fight in this league, so it's all right."

And about that whole DeMarcus Cousins peacemaker thing? Maybe the incident had you thinking that the fiery young Kings center who is coming off a recent suspension for losing his cool might be maturing and turning over a new leaf? Yeah, probably not so much:

"I'm always going to be the first one to react," said Cousins [DBB ed: Understatement of the year], who pulled Thomas away from Villanueva.

"I can't really say what was going though my mind," Cousins said of the foul. "I'm just glad the situation was handled."