The Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets had the brawl of the year, with four players ejected, and of course, Isaiah Stewart ended up in the mix, which may cost him a chance at postseason awards.
You’ve all seen the videos by now, what started as a mild scuffle quickly escalated and in my completely, unapologetically biased opinion, it was the Hornets who did most of the escalating.
Moussa Diabate refused to stop coming after Duren (who did push him in the face to be fair), but even after that died down, domestic violence felon Miles Bridges decided to take a swing at Duren at half court whilst JD was being held back.
I was surprised that Beef Stew had remained on the bench up until that point, but he wasn’t about to watch Bridges take a cheap shot at Duren without getting involved. It’s only too bad that Stew didn’t get his money’s worth.
It was an old-fashioned dust up, the type that were a regular occurrence in the grainy history of my youth and one that probably wouldn’t have even warranted ejections. This one will lead to suspensions, the longest of which will almost undoubtedly be for Stewart, which will likely cost him any chance of making the All-Defensive team, not that Stewart will care.
Isaiah Stewart is all about the brotherhood and won’t care about awards
As Stew said after the game, “What did you expect me to do, stay on the bench?” And the the answer is “yeah, that would have been the smart thing to do,” but also, “I understand.” The whole thing was stupid, but Stewart isn’t going to watch his friend get swung on by the likes of Miles Bridges and not do anything, which is why fans in Detroit love him and everyone else hates him.
The pearl clutchers are out in full force today talking about “season ending suspensions” blah blah blah, give me a break. These are the same online fans who say the NBA is soft in one post and that Stewart should be thrown out of the league in the next.
Not much has changed since the LeBron incident back in 2021 and my reaction is the same, “It was wrong but I understand and I love Stewart for it.”
Unfortunately, a lot of NBA fans only encounter Stewart in these types of viral videos, so have no idea what kind of player he is and think he’s just there to fight which isn’t true.
This perception, along with his history, is likely to garner Stewart a fairly lengthy suspension, which will likely take him out of the running for the All-Defensive team.
I wrote about this in the beginning of January and said that Stewart could potentially be his own worst enemy if he racks up ejections and suspensions, as the margin of error for him to make the minimum games played was already razor thin.
Even if Stewart does make it to 65 games, there will be those who don’t want to reward a guy who “always fights” even though he’s the best rim protector in the league.
The thing is, Stewart won’t care, as he’s going to defend his guy at the cost of any award or accolade that should come his way.
Judging by a quick peruse of social media, the league hates the Pistons again, which means they are doing something right.
It’s too bad the rest of the league’s fans have the wrong idea about Beef Stew, but it won’t matter to him or fans of the Pistons, who are ready to build a statue.