They’re fighting again

“stronger men, super competitive mindsets, tired minds, and less trust in the system”

BY HENRY ABBOTT and DAVID THORPE

The night before Halloween, Ja Morant scored on the Nets’ Keon Johnson, and then he let Johnson hear about it for the entirety of his jog back on defense. By the free throw line, Johnson had his chest pressed into Morant’s and there was zero chance the words filling the air were G-rated. Quick double technicals were called, meaning that about 35 minutes of playing time into his season, Johnson had become this season’s first NBA player to be ejected for being saucy.

But not the last. A quick tour of the Spotrac database shows players are getting ejected fighting-or-close every few days. Click through the table for a list of ejections as of a few days ago (edited to remove those are clearly for off-court or nonviolent infractions).

As David Thorpe and I have been discussing, the mood this year is largely Legendz, which feels different.

HENRY: I remember writing, years ago, after Malice in the Palace, that the NBA had gone years without a big fight. They changed a bunch of rules, cracked down, and fighting essentially stopped being a regular part of basketball. Check me on this, but I think they went years without a punch thrown. And now, not that we’ve had another Kermit Washington/Rudy Tomjanovich or Malice in the Palace … but it’s brewing, right? This season it seems like scuffles are part of the nightly conversation.

DAVID: You're absolutely right. It's moving in that direction.