An odd sequence of events occurred on Friday night following the Charlotte Bobcats’ 118-110 victory over the New Orleans Hornets.
Immediately after the final buzzer, LaMelo Ball began going around to his teammates to high-five them. When he got to Bismack Biyombo, the veteran big man pushed him away.
lol what happened here pic.twitter.com/I37NnhJOsS
— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) January 9, 2021
Naturally, the bizarre incident immediately went viral, with many speculating as to what Biyombo’s issue with Ball was.
Some wondered if perhaps the 28-year-old didn’t like his new rookie teammate chasing stats, while others assumed it was all just some elaborate joke.
During the postgame media session, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer decided to get to the bottom of it. He asked Biyombo point blank: what happened there?
“I heard about that video,” Biyombo said. “We actually laughed about it.”
As far as he is concerned, the whole thing was blown out of proportion.
“It’s funny for the media, they would take that and they would transform it into whatever they want to transform it into,” he continued, per USA Today. “But for us, we know what it is so it’s like ‘Do we really have to talk about this?’ “That’s my little man. We always have fun.”
The Bucks owner’s daughter decided to bring 2021 in with a bang by stripping all her clothes off. https://t.co/UgzhEEna4o
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 7, 2021
Still, Biyombo understands how the video could be taken the wrong way.
“I think even last game, we were talking like ‘You see, we have to stop playing too much. People taking it a little too far.’ But I think for us at the same time, we just show how close we are, you know?”
Above all else, Biyombo really wanted to reiterate and bring home the most important point: he and Ball are tight.
O.J. has a simple question for America. https://t.co/w1ucZarCdF
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 9, 2021
“But, again, it’s my little brother and I think we have fun and that’s the most important thing,” he continued. “We’re continuing to grow and helping the team win and at the end of the day everybody’s goal is to try to win a ball game.”
One day after that ‘joke’ altercation, Ball came back and made NBA history – so clearly he isn’t too bothered by what transpired. He has been looking so good lately, in fact, that his dad is out in the streets demanding that his youngest son be inserted into the starting line-up.
All other drama notwithstanding, this much is clear: Ball is a star in the making, and the Hornets definitely got themselves a strong young prospect in this year’s draft.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
