Hoops turned into heavyweight boxing last night between the Detroit Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets. More specifically, between the Pistons’ Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart and the Hornets’ Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges. The fisticuffs began with Duren and Diabate before perpetual crash-out Isaiah Stewart jumped into the fray and escalated the third-quarter fracas.
According to MLive, Moussa Diabate is very self-aware and content with grown man basketball.
“We go back and forth, it’s a basketball game at the end of the day,” Diabate said Tuesday. “We’re going to be competitive, we’re going to talk, we’re going to be physical and I’m completely OK with that.
“I fouled him, we get into each other’s face, I’m fine with that…where it took a different route was when he put his hand in my face. Obviously, it’s unfortunate but I got pushed out of control by emotions.”
If you ask Piston head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Hornets’ players are the ones who crossed the sacred line of manhood and disrespect.
Via Detroit Free Press:
“When you go back and watch the film, they ran multiple guys at JD,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “JD and Stew consider themselves to be brothers, and if you run two guys at one guy and you’ve already crossed the line, human instinct tells him to protect his little brother. I hate to see it, again, but that’s the nature of what happened. I hate it for Stew because of the things that are gonna follow, but again, we weren’t the ones that crossed the line tonight and initiated this.”
All four players were ejected from the game but no word on how long suspensions might be. For Isaiah Stewart, a repeat offender, there could be significant consequences. Former NBA All-Star Demarcus Cousins spoke on the incident during an episode of the Run It Back Show via Heavy:
“It’s gonna be more than that, this isn’t a 1st-time offender, and he left the bench,” Cousins said after his co-host, Lou Williams, predicted Stewart would be suspended ten games. “I’m thinking 20 to 25 (game suspension), to be honest.”
Tough break for the Pistons as they are currently riding high as the best team in the NBA.
