Last night featured one of the most physical games we’ve seen in a while in the NBA. Hard fouls everywhere ultimetely lead to John Wall throwing a punch at Zyndrunas Ilgauskas. Check it out.
As bizzare as this is to say I’m almost glad Wall reacted the way he did. Only because 99.8% of all other basketball players would have flopped to the ground to try and draw a foul.
Was Ilgauskas clearing space or intentionally throwing an elbow in John Wall’s direction?
I think that it was a basketball play by Ilgauskas and Wall was out of line in throwing the punch. For a kid that is used to winning all the time it has been a long season of losing for Wall and frustration got the best of him.
I agree completely. What Ilgauskas did was nothing compared to what Shaq, Malone and other big men used to do. Wall is losing his mind in Washington but another lottery pick will help them big time going forward
This illustrates beautifully my point that basketball fights are the most awkward spectacle on TV. Wall loses his shit and throws an off balance chest punch that doesn’t land. On top of that, Ilgauskas just chest bumps and backs him up him in response? How does no one get laid out in this maylay? I’ve seen playground fights in elementary that have caused more damage.
I keep hearing terms like “fight” and “brawl” being thrown around to describe the video. Let’s come up with some sort of a system so we’re all on the same page.
disagreement – where a player doesn’t like what was thrown down and/or how it was celebrated
scuffle – two players confront each other and act like they’re both ready to take matters into their own hands; a third player is required to come in to “break-it-up” so nobody has to attempt to throw a punch
incident – a punch is thrown, possibly by accident, but a reply is required to be certain a punch was thrown; assistant coaches are everywhere
fight – two or more players get involved and everybody is throwing down; no blood is drawn but at least one player has to have the worst raspberry patch anybody has ever seen; assistant coaches are getting run over and tripping on the players adding a certain degree of hilarity to the events
brawl – this is the full throw down involving at least 7 players; to make it official, a referee must get injured or accidentally slapped while trying to break it all up
melee – players are in the stands fighting the fans; Ron Artest is obviously invovled
Based on the above, I would describe the John Wall fight as an incident.
My problem with your classification system is that when basketball players are involved will it escalate past an incident. Closed fist punches just aren’t in a basketball players repertoire. Just like consistent punishment is not in the NHL’s repertoire.
P.S. There may need to be a basketball only classification system that has a pillow fight level that is 2nd from the top.