John Wall and Zydrunas Ilgauskas ejected over a skirmish
March 31, 2001 - In a highly confrontational encounter between the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the No-1 draft pick of the 2010 season,
John Wall and Miami Heat’s giant centre Zydrunas Ilgauskas literally came to blows in the second quarter.
With the Wizards leading by 37-36, the intimidating Heat centre, who has recently recovered from a foot ailment, attempted to make the ball inbound. In doing so,
he offhandedly peppered Wall’s face with an elbow.
The rookie point guard stopped for a split second but braved on to defend the lanky Heat centre, who was just 25 feet from the rim. Wall, was in for some more bashing
though as Ilgauskas again landed an elbow on him and that too on his face. It proved to be a bit too much for the young rookie and he responded with a punch in Ilgauskas’s rib cage area.
The officials mediated right away, but the scenario got worse when the Wizards centre JaVale McGee decided to jump in. McGee was shoved back by Heat backup forward
Juwan Howard immediately. Just when McGee was getting ready to strike back his coach Flip Saunders interrupted and pushed him away. McGee said after the game, “Guy hit him in the face and obviously, he wasn’t having it. I went over there to break it up and
Juwan wanted to blindside push me or whatever.”
The game remained discontinued for several minutes, after the skirmish as the officials gathered around a TV to determine the culprit through replays. Finally, Wall
and Ilgauskas each were charged with a blatant foul-2 and were expelled. Howard was assessed with a technical foul and ejected for pushing McGee, who was also called for a technical foul but he wasn’t expelled from the game. A former Wizard himself, Howard
was also involved in a confrontation with the Wizards back in November.
Coach Saunders, who played a major role in de-escalating the situation on the court, fully supported Wall in the post game conference, “One, he took a shot, an elbow
to the head. From what the referees told me, I don’t know if there will be further penalties. What happens on any flagrant twos, any situation, they always evaluate everything. From what the referees said, I don’t think it warrants it because it was just elbows
that were thrown, not punches. I’m assuming that it’ll be okay.”
This is the second time; Wall has been ejected from a National Basketball Association (NBA) game. Prior to this on February 4, he was called for two technical fouls
in the same game against the Orlando Magic.
Wall entered Wednesday night, just seven points short of becoming the first Wizard rookie with 1,000 points since 1994-95. However, he could only score two points
before he was ejected. Ilgauskas scored two points in two minutes play, while Howard remained scoreless.
Wall watched the rest of the game from the sidelines as the Wizards gamely tried to pull off an upset. A 13-3 run down the by the Heat however proved to be the final
nail in the coffin as the men from the South Beach rolled onto a 123-107 rout at the Verizon centre.
Regretting his outburst after the game, Wall said, “Just got hit by an elbow and reacted to it. I’m disappointed in the way I reacted. I let my teammates down. I
let my organization down.”
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