The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Sacramento Kings 124-110 on Sunday. What should have been a fairly ho-hum affair ended in dramatic and controversial fashion.
With a little more than three minutes remaining in the game and Sacramento down by 13, 23-year-old Chimezie Metu went up and slammed home a nifty little dunk on Jonas Valanciunas.
Because the Kings youngster had nowhere to drop, his legs ended up swinging onto Valanciunas’ shoulders.
Valanciunas took offense to this and violently threw Metu to the ground.
On Tuesday, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee confirmed that “Metu will be sidelined for several weeks after breaking his wrist on what coach Luke Walton called a ‘dangerous play.’”
According to Walton, “Walton said Metu was ‘fine’ before Monday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, but Metu continued to experience soreness after going through pregame warmups. An X-ray examination after the game revealed a right wrist fracture, sources told The Bee. A timeline for Metu’s return will be determined after he is examined by a hand specialist.”
Valanciunas was given a tech for unsportsmanlike conduct, but ultimately the refs decided that no flagrant foul had occurred.
Given how poor the officiating has been this year, the terrible decision in this particular instance is completely unsurprising.
Mind you, so far this year fans have witnessed LeBron James play dirty and not get penalized and literally injure an opponent and not get punished. The refs also blatantly seemed to help the Los Angeles Lakers during an outing, quite clearly rob the Chicago Bulls of a potential victory, and consistently disrespect Paul George to the point where he felt it was necessary he speak out.
Based on all that, the refs waving off Valanciunas breaking someone’s hand shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.
Still, if the league wants some shred of faith in their ability to police the sport, it’d be nice if the NBA came out and addressed this situation. Valanciunas definitely should be suspended.
Will Adam Silver do what’s right now that we know the severity of the damage that Valanciunas did?
Time will tell.
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