LeBron James’ elbow to Isaiah Stewart has some similarities with Karl Malone’s slashing of Isiah Thomas back in 1991.
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Fights in a basketball match are always exciting for fans. Although players these days do not engage in fights as much as they used to before the start of the last decade, November 2021 alone has brought upon bigger brawls than the past few years combined.
First Nikola Jokic – Markieff Morris and now Isaiah Stewart – LeBron James. On Sunday night Lakers visited Detroit to even their W/L column. But they found themselves trailing by 7 points after the 2-quarters of play to a 4-11 Pistons.
That changed soon enough when LeBron slashed an elbow and caught Isaiah’s face while Jerami Grant was shooting his free throws. The 20-year old Piston forward was cut around his eyebrow and gushed out blood like an MMA fighter. As soon as he got up he was lurking for LeBron’s blood as sent a few bodies flying while chasing the King.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 22, 2021
Both of them were out of the game soon enough. Pistons who at one point were up by 15 points lost the game by 20. When Stewart could have played it another away and helped his team bruise a LeBron-less Laker, even more, he chose to bruise Bron with his hands. And so Lakers took the momentum away from Pistons.
If Isaiah Stewart could take it the way his point guard counterpart Isiah Thomas took it after getting banged up by the Mailman in a similar fashion, Pistons might have had a different ending to the game. Let’s get back in time.
When the Mailman slashed Isiah Thomas’ head up
It was a second regular-season game between the ‘Bad Boys’ Pistons and Utah Jazz in 1991. In the first one, Thomas absolutely destroyed the Jazz and John Stockton. As team USA famously snubbed Isiah for Stockton, for the Dream Team. Zeke responded by dropping 44 points on Stockton two weeks into the NBA season.
Karl Malone, one of the strongest guys in the NBA ever, was apparently sour about Isiah’s demolition of his playmaker a month earlier. “The Mailman” could wait long enough, just in early first quarter, the 6’9, 250 pound Malone squared up a 6’1, 180 pound Zeke when the latter was driving to the basket.
The point guard ended up bloodied on the floor. But rather than going after “the Mailman” and Co with his fists, he chose to get the treatment, come back on court after getting 40-stitches, and almost win the close game for Pistons who were struggling without their primary ball-handler and leader. He swished two free throws and almost scored the game-winner on the Jazz.
Nobody would expect half of what Zeke did from the 6’8, 250 pound center of the Pistons. But Stewart could have helped Jerami Grant who had a 37-point game, by just staying on the court and getting some rebounds. But he decided otherwise.
The 20-year old, “Beef Stew” trying to square up Bron in his 19th year, might be the only fight in NBA with this huge age difference among the involved players. He is going to face a huge suspension for going so ferociously against the King of the NBA.
