In case you recently arrived from another planet, Isaiah Stewart of the Detroit Pistons had to be restrained by the entire team to stop him from killing LeBron James after “The King” threw a sucker punch in last night’s loss to the Lakers.
I’ve been watching LeBron since he was in high school and have never known him to be a dirty player at all, but that was a dirty play, period. The Pistons were owning the Lakers (who had lost three in a row), LeBron was having a bad game and Isaiah Stewart was a big part of why the Pistons were winning.
LeBron clearly got frustrated and did a stupid thing that started the whole brawl. He deserved to be kicked out and deserves the suspension and fines that are coming.
Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart failed to recognize the moment
I should say that I think Isaiah Stewart was wrong for continuing to go after James several times after the initial scuffle died down. Part of that blame goes to Russell Westbrook, who was running his mouth and clearly escalated the situation more than once. He should owe the league some money as well.
Beef Stew was wrong, not for his reaction, but his failure to recognize the moment, as losing him cost the Pistons the game, and they are going to struggle while he is out with what will probably be a lengthy suspension.
Stewart was wrong because of how his actions affected his team, but I 100 percent get it and part of me loves it.
Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart reacted like a human
When I say Isaiah Stewart was “wrong” I certainly don’t mean morally wrong, as he had every reason to go after LeBron after being punched in the face.
LeBron tried to play innocent after he realized what he had done, but I do think he was trying to fire up his own team and went too far. He’s lucky there was an army of people holding Stewart back.
I am not a person who likes fights, but I was told as a kid that if you punch another dude in the face, or spit on him or say certain choice words about his mother, you better be ready to fight.
LeBron broke that code and, like I said, if you punch a man in the face you had better be ready to back that up and LeBron clearly wasn’t. He thought he was going to deliver his cheap shot, play innocent and get away with it, but Isaiah Stewart wasn’t having it.
Ideally, Stewart would have calmed down, turned to the crowd with a bloody face, received the biggest standing ovation in Pistons’ history while LeBron was tossed from the game, the Pistons go on to victory behind Stewart’s defense and Detroit leaves the game with no suspensions.
What happened was not ideal, but again, I get it.
And to be honest, I loved it.
The Pistons fighting the Lakers like the old days
During the Bad Boys era, this Isaiah Stewart “fight” might not have even drawn a technical foul, as those kinds of things happened practically every game.
Just google “Bill Laimbeer punched in face” to see what I mean.
The league rightfully tried to clean this stuff up after the Malice in the Palace, which showed what can happen when things really get out of control.
I don’t necessarily miss all of the hard fouls and cheap shots, but I do miss the rivalries.
Many young Pistons’ fans don’t even hate the Lakers or Celtics because they’ve grown up in this version of the league where players aren’t allowed much physical contact.
Rivalries are what make sports fun, and the lack of them is why many fans spend more time talking about the offseason than they do the actual games. The lack of rivalries gave birth to the dreaded “Stan” culture where fans follow individual players more than teams. I miss the days when teams hated each other which led to super competitive games.
This should kickstart the Pistons/Lakers rivalry and I love that.
I also love that this Pistons team is getting tired of losing, getting tired of teams coming into their building and pushing them around with impunity. I wish Stewart hadn’t gotten ejected, but I love that he stood up for himself.
Ultimately the Pistons lost the game because of the brawl, so it didn’t work in their favor, and Isaiah Stewart was wrong to lose his cool and let his team down, but I get it, and I love it.
Glad my Isaiah Stewart jersey is in the mail and I’ll be wearing it with pride.