Normally when basketball players make mistakes during a game, their punishment is to get benched, a fine, or maybe running a few extra sprints during practice. That’s not the case with the Charlotte Hornets, though, because as we learned on Monday night, if you do something dumb, Michael Jordan might smack you upside the head.
Malik Monk got hit with a technical foul for running onto the court after an apparent Jeremy Lamb game-winner. Monk thought there was no more time on the clock, but because there was, a technical foul was assessed and Jordan reacted by hitting the back of the second-year guard’s head. Fortunately the tech didn’t lead to the Hornets loss, or Monk might have been in even more trouble.
Jordan did kind of dodge a bullet here, because an owner putting their hands on a player like this is a recipe for disaster — that said, Jordan is very different than any other owner in the league being that he’s, well, Michael Jordan. However, the Associated Press reports that the league doesn’t plan on disciplining Jordan, who said this was a “tap of endearment.”
“It was like a big brother and little brother tap,” Jordan said, per ESPN. “No negative intent. Only love!”
Monk didn’t think anything of this moment, either. He said that Jordan was “playing,” the event was “nothing,” and that Jordan is his “big, big, big brother.”
In general, Jordan (and every coach/executive, for that matter) should avoid doing this sort of thing, but for now, everyone in Charlotte is on the same page that this wasn’t anything nefarious.
