In one of the more bizarre, heated disagreements ever seen on a basketball court, the Indiana Pacers and members of the Milwaukee Bucks spent a large amount of time after the game arguing about who exactly gets to take the ball home.
Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted it because he set the Bucks franchise scoring record with 64 points. The Pacers wanted it because they always give the game ball when a player scores their first NBA point. In this case, it was rookie Oscar Tshiebwe, who made a free throw late in the game.
Antetokounmpo was so frustrated by the situation that he and three or four other Bucks players went to the Pacers hallway outside their locker room in an attempt to get the ball. Pacers assistant coach Mike Weinar can be seen walking away with a ball in this video with Giannis repeatedly yelling for it before taking off into the tunnel.
It turns out though that the Pacers perhaps never had the actual game ball and had one of the reserve balls all along. A Bucks security guard secured the official game ball almost immediately after the buzzer. A true misunderstanding that somehow that escalated into something completely unnecessary.
Below is a still frame of the man who received the ball from security. Looks like Pacers blue but it’s impossible to know for certain. It could just be the way that the overhead light hits in the video as it doesn’t make much sense for anyone from the Pacers to be coming from that direction.
Rick Carlisle explained after things had calmed down what had transpired. He called the scene in the hallway a “fracas” where no punches were landed but that the Pacers general manager (Chad Buchanan) took an elbow to the rims from an unknown Bucks player. Buchanan said he was fine according to Indy Star. Carlisle explained the Pacers point of view with their tradition of getting it for a player’s first points and said that it never should have escalated to the level that it did.
All of this over a game ball that was already in the Bucks possession, it at least appears. Antetokounmpo returned to the floor after running into the Pacers hallway even more heated. He could be seen demanding Tyrese Haliburton go and get him the ball. Haliburton and Lloyd Pierce appeared to be trying to explain the situation and to calm him down. Damian Lillard can be seen laughing at times, ready to share all the details with Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.
Antetokounmpo, however, still is unsure that he has the official ball.
So both teams have a ball. Neither side thinks they have the official ball. And so concludes this ridiculous saga.
The game itself lasted for nearly three hours with half of that time being spent with Giannis at the free throw line where he attempted 32 shots on his way to 64 points. The Pacers had zero answers for him and waved the white flag with about five and a half minutes remaining. Antetokounmpo remained on the floor to set a career high and Bucks record for points in a single game.
Damian Lillard believes the Pacers took the ball—which once again appears to be in the possession of a Bucks security guard mere seconds after the buzzer—out of pettiness and gamesmanship because the Pacers were mad that Giannis remained in the game and continued to score once they emptied the bench.
After he was eventually removed, the Pacers third-string behind Ben Sheppard went on a sudden run that cut the Bucks lead to 10. Giannis re-tied his shoes and returned to the game to another a few more points to his day before the game finally came to an end.
Bobby Portis got ejected earlier in the fourth quarter after his second technical in what was a physical game where the Bucks seemed determined to get the Pacers back for beating them in Las Vegas in the In-Season Tournament Semi-Finals. Antetokounmpo bumped Haliburton with an elbow after the Pacers star dunked and received a technical. Aaron Nesmith was called for a flagrant foul on Antetokounmpo and a technical along with Portis for the altercation that Portis escalated afterward.
The two teams have two games remaining against each other this season with them coming in back to back games to start 2024 in just a couple weeks. Get your popcorn ready.
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[…] a physical game with the Bucks and the fracas over the game ball that followed that inspired the Pacers to sign James Johnson, they just didn’t have it tonight after a solid […]
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