Multiple players were ejected following a scuffle during the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 146-132 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. The fracas stemmed from Spurs forward Julian Champagnie attempting to create space from defending Thunder forward Kenrich Williams by swinging his elbows.
One of the elbows appeared to have caught — or almost caught — Williams, who took exception and went chest-to-chest with Champagnie. Teammates came to both players’ aid, creating a mob of players that eventually led to a lot of pushing, shoving and shouting.
Here’s another angle, where you can clearly see Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan and Thunder forward Luguentz Dort grabbing hold of each other’s jerseys and exchanging choice words.
Fortunately no punches were thrown and nobody was injured in the melee. After the officials sorted everything out and reviewed the footage, Williams, Champagnie and Dort were all assessed technical fouls and ejected, while Sochan also received a tech but remained in the game.
Situations like this are inevitable over the course of an 82-game season, as competitive juices occasionally overflow. The NBA has steadily cracked down on even mild dust-ups like this by issuing stiff penalties in an effort to ensure that things don’t escalate to the level of danger.
While all the participants came out of this one unharmed, we’ll have to see if anyone’s bank account takes a hit via a fine from the league in the near future.
