Fights in the NBA are generally pretty overblown. They get called fights, but in actuality, there almost always aren’t any punches thrown and it never escalates beyond some shoving and a few guys getting nose-to-nose. There are some notable exceptions, sure, but for the most part, NBA fights are closer to harmless scraps than Malice at the Palace.
Lonzo Ball completely understands this, which is why you could catch him treading lightly during Friday night’s Lakers-Suns game. Late in the fourth quarter, Phoenix called a time out while Tyler Ulis was bringing the ball up the floor. Ulis ran into Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and some pushing and shoving broke out involving a collection of Suns and Lakers players, most of whom were trying to play peacemakers.
It was largely uneventful, as there weren’t any punches thrown or anything like that. The most notable thing (other than Ball) actually might have been that it sounded like the television announcers might have wanted Devin Booker to be at the center of things for some odd reason.
As you might have noticed, though, Ball was nowhere to be found. You could watch as he walked away from the situation calmly as the rest of his teammates on the floor wanted to get involved in one way or another.
Ball, who caught plenty of jokes from Twitter, was asked about his decision to walk away after the game, at which point he gave a very logical quote about why you should never get involved in something like this.
Lonzo Ball was asked about staying out of the scrape between KCP and Ulis. “It’s the NBA,” he said. “People ain’t really gonna fight, so I ain’t trying to get no tech.”
— Bill Oram (@billoram) November 18, 2017
That’s actually a really good point that you might not expect out of a rookie. Save your money, young man. Also, it implies that if two teams ever actually get into it, Ball is going to be right there throwing hands.
