The Detroit PA announcers must have had Vietnam flashbacks when the Magic bench cleared. The Pistons and Magic got into a huge brawl over a cheap shot by Magic center Mo Wagner and then a dirty sucker punch by Pistons PG Killian Hayes, resulting in over a dozen suspensions.
You can take the Bad Boy Pistons team out of Detroit, but you can never take the Bad Boy Pistons fans out of the Motor City. Or their current generation of stars evidently.
That brawl was honestly one of the most unnecessary and taken-out-of-proportion fights I’ve seen on a basketball court in a while as neither Wagner nor Hayes had to do their, respective, cheap shots. Though, if anyone really deserves blame in this situation, it’s Killian Hayes and his cowardly sucker punching ways.
Alright, just to set the scene for those who haven’t seen the play, the whole play started from a wayward pass by Caleb Houstan to Mo Wagner in the Pistons half of the court. Having completely missed the pass from Houstan, Wanger had to run back to get the ball as it was heading out of bounds towards the Pistons bench.
However, Wagner was being chased by Hayes for the loose ball and the Pistons guard was just about to get to it when Wagner shoulder barged him flying into the Pistons bench. Obviously, a dirty play ball all accounts and deserving of a technical foul, a free throw for Hayes, and some sort of small fine (<$5K) at the very worst by the league office, but not one that deserved a brawl to ensue.
It was a play that should have been forgotten about as soon as the action was resumed on the court…
But, clearly, Killian Hayes had other ideas.
After getting up from getting laid out, Hayes brushed past a few of his teammates as they surrounded and berated Wagner and he popped the German center in the back of the head with a sucker punch, knocking Wagner out cold and causing a huge bench brawl.
Almost the entire Magic bench, both coaches and players alike, cleared their area and rushed to the aid of Wagner, forcing the Pistons players to have to defend Hayes as he skulked to the back of the scrum like a coward and waited until the refs cleared up the mess.
Evidently, I’m not on Hayes’ side in this fight as he not only cheap shotted a defensive player (Wagner was turned around and had his arms stuck by his side), but he also ran away and hid behind his teammates when the Magic players came after him.
If you’re going to be a cheap-shot artist, at least have the courage of standing up for your actions.
Nevertheless, the whole situation was made slightly funnier by the Pistons’ PA announcer screaming on the PA system for the Detroit fans to stay in their seats and not to move as the flashbacks of the Malice went through his head. Those Malice Vietnam flashbacks must have been really intense as the Pistons arena was only 65% full at the time as the game was about to go to intermission.
All in all, nothing aside came out of the scrum as both sets of players and coaches were broken up and the game was resumed shortly afterwards. The real action came after the game as Adam Silver and the league office suspended Killian Hayes 3 games, Wagnar 2 games, Pistons guard Hamidou Diallo 1 game (he was one of the scrum’s main participants), and 11 more Magic players for 1 game as they left their bench to join the scrum.
Still, the Pistons ended up winning the game (which didn’t happen at the Malice) 121-101 in the battle between two of the worst teams of the East.
The Victor Wembanyama tank race continues!
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