Thursday’s game between the Utah Jazz and the Toronto Raptors was notable for a few reasons. Chief among them was the fact that both teams are playing quite well this season. While this probably won’t be an NBA Finals preview, there was plenty of intrigue surrounding the proceedings and an entertaining basketball product was likely to follow. What the NBA world did not expect, though, was a player to drop his pants while actively participating in the game.
During the third quarter, Jazz big man Derrick Favors headed to the charity stripe for seemingly harmless free throw attempts. Raptors center Lucas Nogueira, however, decided to fix the way that his jersey was tucked in … but slipping his shorts down around his knees in the view of a live video camera.
The 24-year-old center from Brazil is enjoying what is easily his best season to date, averaging 4.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game as Toronto’s backup to Jonas Valanciunas. With that said, it seems as if Nogueira briefly forgot completely where he was in this instance, as virtually anything that transpires on an NBA court during a regular season game is captured.
It appears that the broadcast crew did not acknowledge the act and, frankly, that is a wonder in itself. Lucas Nogueira made news for a bizarre reason on Thursday and it isn’t one that we’ll likely see replicated this season.
