Violence broke out at an AAU basketball game in Atlanta on Sunday when tensions between two teams caused players to lash out at officials trying to keep peace in the game itself.
Chicago’s Raw Athletics and Houston Raptor were playing on Sunday morning when the contest devolved into a fight between players and officials. The violence was captured on video and posted to Twitter by Doug Jones, who posted a video of three players attacking an official and another video where the attacks devolved into a brawl that was broken up by other adults watching the matchup.
https://twitter.com/djones8301/status/1015968085856129025
The second video is particularly brutal in nature.
https://twitter.com/djones8301/status/1015973584735539201
According to Yahoo’s Jeff Eisenberg, the fight started over an argument about a foul called by an official. A player soon bumped an official, and the tension spiraled out of control from there.
Tempers flared in the final minute of the game when a Raw Athletics player allegedly disputed a foul call by complaining vehemently and shoulder-bumping the referee who blew the whistle. The referee then assessed a technical foul against the player, which allegedly resulted in the player throwing a punch and setting off the first in a series of scrums.
“When I looked up, the kid was swinging at the ref,” Benjamin said. “At that point I told my assistant coaches to get our kids on the other side of the court. I didn’t want them involved in that at all. If you watch the video, you will probably not see a single purple jersey.”
Another video from the game shows what apparently lead up to the scrum, but pans away shortly before punches were thrown and refocuses on the altercation after fans yell out in concern.
Here’s a look at that video I was talking about. This is the moment that led up to the brawl. The camera pans to the right, so we may have missed a crucial moment. pic.twitter.com/leA0DEHbsc
— Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) July 9, 2018
Raw Athletics forfeited the game, though they were already losing when their players lashed out. The other game going on next to the court was temporarily stopped as the fight was broken up, but it was concluded on Sunday morning.
(via Yahoo Sports)
