San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie and Oklahoma City Thunder players Kenrich Williams and Lu Dort were all ejected after an incident that nearly escalated into a brawl if not for the intervention of several players.
Both Spurs acting head coach Mitch Johnson and Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault shared their reactions to the altercation.
“It looked like Kenrich Williams was being aggressive, and Julian (Champagnie) was standing his ground,” Johnson said.
“We haven’t been a team to retaliate much, but we did tonight,” Daigneault responded.
While Johnson addressed the situation more generally, Daigneault’s comments were sharper. Both coaches spoke about the incident during their respective post-game press conferences following the Thunder’s 146-132 win.
“It happens so often now in our game, I don’t know… it feels like the rules may have changed, but when players are aggressive, there’s a lot of incidental elbows or contact,” Johnson remarked.
Leave a Reply