Peppers should have been ejected, but at the bare minimum he should be given a stiff fine.
The problem with ejections as a punishment for such infractions is that they don't impact the player individually all that much. I believe that, at least for repeat offenders, ejection should be accompanied by automatic forfeiture of the game check. I think ejection would bring peer pressure to bear upon the player, while forfeiture of pay would affect the player where it hurts, and would affect highly paid players proportionately as harshly as lower-paid players.
I had thought that perhaps an equitable model would be to impose a prorated forfeiture of pay; e.g., a personal foul in the fourth quarter lead to forfeiture of 25% of the game check, while an infraction in the first quarter would lead to forfeiture of the entire game check. However, that might lead to a plethora of devastating hits in the waning moments of games. The best strategy seems to be forfeiture of the game check, since an ejection is effectively a suspension anyway. Any multi-game suspensions for repeat offenders should be without pay.
"Nonstopdrivel" wrote: