MILWAUKEE — Giannis Antetokounmpo exchanged heated phrases with members of the Indiana employees and raced towards the Pacers’ locker room Wednesday night time because the groups squared off in a hallway in a dispute over the sport ball following the Milwaukee star’s franchise-record 64-point efficiency.
After the Bucks’ 140-126 victory, Antetokounmpo had an animated dialogue with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton and different Pacers earlier than dashing from the courtroom towards the Indiana locker room searching for the ball.
The Bucks needed the sport ball for Antetokounmpo. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle stated the Pacers took the ball for Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored his first official NBA level.
That led to a confrontation between members of the groups within the enviornment hallway. Afterward, there nonetheless was confusion over who had which sport ball.
“I have no idea. I’m not going to lie,” Antetokounmpo stated. “I have no idea. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand new ball. I can tell. I played, what, 35 minutes today. I know how the game ball felt. The ball that I have, which I’ll take and I’ll give it to my mom for sure, but I don’t know if it’s actually the game ball.”
One video seems to indicate the precise sport ball being collected by a member of the Bucks’ employees. Carlisle stated the Pacers apparently have a reserve sport ball they took after the sport.
Bucks guard Cameron Payne stated he was one of many gamers who went down the tunnel.
“Man wanted that ball,” Payne stated. “I’m following my team, helping my teammate out. It was just a lot of commotion, honestly. He just wanted his ball, man.”
Carlisle stated quite a lot of the Bucks had been within the hallway close to the Indiana locker room and a confrontation occurred, with Indiana’s normal supervisor getting elbowed within the ribs.
“What happened after the game was unfortunate,” Carlisle stated. “There was a misunderstanding about the game ball. … We were not thinking about Giannis’ franchise record, so we grabbed the ball.
“A couple of minutes later, several of their players ended up in our hallway, and there was a big, I don’t know what to call it – a fracas, melee, whatever. I don’t think any punches were landed, but my general manager got elbowed in the ribs by one of their players. He certainly had a bruised rib and who knows if it’s anything more than that. Unfortunate situation.
“We don’t need the official game ball. There’s two game balls there. We could have taken the other one, but it didn’t need to escalate to that. Really unfortunate.”
Carlisle cited the groups taking part in 3 times in the previous couple of weeks and stated that issues had been heated between the groups. Indiana knocked off Milwaukee final Thursday night time within the semifinals of the In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas.
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