You don’t see Flagrant 2 fouls assessed too often, especially against offensive players. That’s why tonight is your lucky night! Unless you’re an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, of course.
The moment came in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Carmelo Anthony, driving past a defender on the left wing, made contact with Portland big man Jusuf Nurkić at the rim.
Initially called a basket, officials decided instead to award a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection for Anthony.
Here’s the play as it occurred on the floor:
Carmelo Anthony made a wild attempt to initiate contact on a drive & got ejected. Seems a bit excessive pic.twitter.com/PU7jQLgaDt
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) November 6, 2017
Here’s the explanation of Carmelo Anthony’s ejection pic.twitter.com/T8ZdAkYltq
— Mike Richman (@mikegrich) November 6, 2017
Yeesh.
Not exactly what you would call, uh, flagrant but definitely not nothing. Anthony definitely jumped and moved his elbow from a natural position into one that was directly aligned with Nurkič’s face.
The rule for a Flagrant 2 is as such, from the NBA:
Here’s what Russell Westbrook had to say on the matter. Warning, some NSFW language ahead:
Russell Westbrook postgame is NSFW. pic.twitter.com/ZthQIImcXO
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) November 6, 2017
You’d have to think that’s maybe an offensive or technical foul at the most, but they call them like they see them. Perhaps the NBA will have more to say about it tomorrow?
Same goes for this ejection of Kyle Lowry, who got rang for ... language?
Kyle Lowry gets double-tech and ejection for yelling at referee, kisses baby on the way out pic.twitter.com/Qxxrb2hAgQ
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) November 6, 2017
Some people like dunks but favorite part of basketball is the rescission of flagrant fouls.
