Grayson Allen Back at It, Kicked out of Game with 2 Flagrant Fouls in 7 Seconds
In the annals of NBA history, there have been some spectacular flurries of picking up big stats in short time intervals.
There’s Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds to drive an Indiana Pacers comeback in a playoff game against the New York Knicks.
There’s Bubba Wells fouling out of a game in just three minutes. And there’s Klay Thompson scoring 37 points in one quarter of basketball.
None of those feats are quite as insane in a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it kind of way as former Duke star Grayson Allen of the Memphis Grizzlies picking up two flagrant fouls in just seven seconds of game time … in a Summer League game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miyHUtrIFCg
Allen appeared to take a shot at the head of the Celtics’ Grant Williams to pick up the first flagrant, as CBS Sports noted.
After play resumed, the Celtics got the ball.
And just seven seconds of game time layer, Allen took a downward tomahawk swipe at Williams while fighting for position in the low post. That second flagrant got him ejected.
“What are you doing?” ESPN commentator Dan Dakich asked in exasperation.
“It’s just tiresome. Let’s be honest, Duke defended him ad nauseam, enabled him, and now it just continues,” he added. “Truthfully it’s just exhausting.”
“If he were this tough, grind-it-out, fighting guy,” Dakich continued, “then you’d say ‘all right.'”
“But … he just stays around the perimeter, shoots jump shots, avoids contact and then does things like that.”
Marc Kestecher, the play-by-play man for ESPN, then picked up the ball and did some scoring of his own.
“You can’t be sneaky,” Kestecher noted, before dipping into the history books and saying, “You want to go toe-to-toe Charles Oakley style, OK.”
As one Twitter user pointed out, all you have to do is take a peek at the faces of both Allen’s teammates and the Celtics.
All you need to know about Grayson Allen is the look of his teammates on the bench and the other teams bench when he gets ejected https://t.co/xUdfCCiyKU
— Joseph Horner (@JosephHorner) July 12, 2019
And as Deadspin noted, this is not Allen’s first effort to claim the title of dirtiest player in the NBA.
Last year, Allen got similarly over-aggressive with Atlanta Hawks prospect Trae Young. And of course, watching Allen’s lowlight reel in college reveals a player who, the moment someone else on a basketball court is better than he is, resorts to cheap shots.
Except he only manages to come off as the world’s least intimidating schoolyard bully in the process.
Even more telling is Williams’ response, or the lack thereof. He simply brushed off the contact and kept playing like the professional that he is.
Allen was a throw-in in the trade that brought Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz from Memphis.
The Jazz picked Allen 21st in the 2018 draft and found, to what should have been the surprise of absolutely nobody, that they’d just wasted a guaranteed rookie deal on a petulant no-talent who averaged just 5.6 points and less than one rebound per game.
Allen will make more than $2.4 million million this year with Memphis, after which point the Grizzlies have non-guaranteed team options for 2020-21 and ’21-22.
If the Grizzlies care at all about the culture of their basketball team, they’ll waive Allen and let him get those checks from the comfort of an early retirement.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
