Yesterday, in the contest between Cleveland and Memphis, Dillon Brooks and Donovan Mitchell had brawled on the court, with the Grizzlies player later suspended by the NBA for one contest for purposely hitting his opponent “in the nether regions.” But tonight, this time in Minneapolis, there was another furious brawl starring Mo Bamba and Austin Rivers. It is unclear from the television footage what happened to start this brawl, but apparently Bamba, who was on the bench at the time, had shortly before yelled something at Rivers after a missed triple. According to Kevon Harris, sitting next to him, he would yell at him: “This is not high school anymore!”. From there a less than polite exchange of opinions between the two, until something set off the Magic’s long shot.
From the bench, Bamba entered the court to confront Rivers (and that by rule is already a suspension), but the two brawled to the ground, with a multitude of both Magic and Timberwolves players trying to quell the situation.
Eventually both Rivers and Bamba, along with Tauren Prince, Jaden McDaniels and Jalen Suggs, were ejected. The provocations did not stop on the court, however: after the game Austin Rivers, in response to a story by Bamba, posted a direct message to his opponent in his own Instagram stories: “Dude, I came against you in 1 vs 5, no protection! You needed your teammates, otherwise you would have ended up strangled! We only know you from an old rap song [“Mo Bamba” di Shack Wes, ndr], not for basketball. So shut your mouth. And Orlando is my city, ask around and verify. They don’t like you — factual!”.
Milan, Italy. A graduate in Labor Management and Communication for Organizations from Catholic University, I founded BasketUniverso in 2011. Yes, I root for Orlando Magic and do my best not to hide it.
