Feisty grandma in Joel Przybilla's family mad at NBA over fine

She says that in an on-court fight last Friday "The first punch was done to Joel," a former Gopher and Monticello (Minn.) High School center.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: January 7, 2009 - 11:52 PM

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An 80-something in-law of Portland Trailblazer Joel Przybilla is mad at NBA Commissioner David Stern because the league fined her 7-foot-1 relative for his role in a shoving match with an opposing player last week.

Stella Stawski, whose granddaughter is married to Przybilla, said this morning that it's unfair that the former Gopher and Monticello (Minn.) High School center has to pay the league $7,500 for the physical to-do he had Friday with New Orleans center Tyson Chandler.

Stawski, 83 and just a few inches over 5 feet tall, said she mentioned to a friend that she had a mind to fire off a letter to Stern but now concedes that it probably wouldn't do much good. Even so, she's passionate in defending her oversized relative.

Initial news media reports out of Oregon erroneously said that it was Przybilla's grandmother who intended to start a letter-writing campaign to Stern objecting to the fine.

"The altercation started with the other young man," Stawski, who lives in suburban Milwaukee, said this morning. "The first punch was done to Joel, not the other way around. ... That was a totally flagrant foul."

Stawski's defense of Przybilla was news to her daughter, Ellen Nygren, Przybilla's mother-in-law. "My mom? Uh-oh," Nygren said. "She is an avid basketball fan. I really don't know what the heck is going on. Oh, my gosh."

In the game Friday, Przybilla shoved Chandler with a forearm to the abdomen, which caused Chandler to lunge forward and smack Przybilla with a harder, more blatant forearm. The officials went to the replay screen before deciding to eject Chandler. At one point, Chandler took a swipe at Przybilla's heavily bandaged broken wrist. Along with the ejection, Chandler had to serve a one-game suspension.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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