A wild brawl broke out at the end of a basketball game between the Taoyuan Leopards and the TaiwanBeer HeroBears of Taiwan’s premier league.
With less than a minute remaining in Sunday’s game, the Leopards led by 18 points, and Taoyuan’s Chen Hsiao-jun carried the ball up the court and elbowed TaiwanBeer’s Chian Yu-an after the two fought over the ball. After the two exchanged punches, the referees separated them, but it was only the start.
Both benches cleared immediately, and HeroBears assistant coach Lin Chieh-ho rushed the court and escalated the physical altercation with punches. The fight carried onto the other side of the court before cooler heads prevailed. Chieh-ho and Hsiao-jun fell to the floor with a referee alongside them as they continued to attack one another.
Twelve players, including former NBA star Dwight Howard, were ejected from the game due to the brawl. Howard was in the middle of the melee to play peacemaker, so he was upset to hear his name called out as one of the players ejected from the contest.
After the game, the former Slam Dunk Contest champion called his ejection “unwarranted,” and he felt he was “wrongly singled out.”
Howard’s HeroBears defeated the Leopards 120-108 after the last minute of the game resumed.
Howard came off the bench and got into the middle of the scrum to de-escalate the brawl, but that action was against the league’s policy. Just like in the NBA, the T1 League ejects players from the game if the player leaves the bench area.
The former NBA superstar joined Taiwan’s premier basketball league in November after he signed a contract worth over $1 million. He spent 18 seasons in the NBA, where he was named to eight All-Star games and eight All-NBA teams.
Howard played for the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Wizards.
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The post WATCH: Absolutely WILD BRAWL Leads to 12 Players Getting Ejected from Basketball Game, Including Former NBA Star Dwight Howard first appeared on Mediaite.