You'd think that everyone in the NBA would know by now that grabbing the basketball from a players hands after a turnover is typically frowned upon, especially when that player is former MVP Russell Westbrook. On Wednesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Toronto Raptors at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, where they would go onto win 124-107.
But one of the main highlights that left people talking afterwards occurred in the second quarter when Raptors Center Jonas Valanciunas tried grabbing the ball out of Russell Westbrook’s hands. Of course not having it, an angry-Russell proceeded to flail, and quickly pop up on his feet to get into the 7-footer’s face. Then, teammate Steven Adams ran over and tried to defend him as a bunch of other players tried to prevent anything else from happening. However it’s pretty clear by Russ’ emotion & aggression that he wasn’t playing.
A double technical was called on Westbrook and Valanciunas. And about a minute after that, a double foul was then called on Adams and Valanciunas after Adams was thrown to the floor. It just happened to be one of those chippy nights on the basketball court to say the least.
Check out footage of Russ & Jonas’ altercation (below) and let this be a lesson to any NBA player thinking about messing with Russ in the future that you better be ready to back up your actions.
https://twitter.com/_/status/946210783150657536
https://twitter.com/_/status/946198140834779136
