Trevor Booker ejected from Jazz-Lakers for slapping Roy Hibbert upside head
Sure, it’s still just preseason, but whenever NBA players take the court and get into the flow of competition, temperatures can start to rise and tempers can flare. Case in point: Utah Jazz forward Trevor Booker challenging Los Angeles Lakers center Roy Hibbert to a duel during the teams’ Tuesday night tilt in Honolulu:
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With just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, Booker set a screen for Jazz point guard Trey Burke on the right wing. Booker’s man, Lakers forward Julius Randle, stayed attached to him on the screen, and I mean that very literally; they stayed tangled up for a few seconds before an angry Booker shoved the 2014 lottery pick away. The play would ultimately result in a double foul assessed by referee Zach Zarba.
It would also result in the 7-foot-2 Hibbert — whom the Lakers acquired this summer from an Indiana Pacers team looking to downsize and speed up — lumbering over to have words with Booker, who has established himself over the course of a five-year NBA career spent with the Jazz and Washington Wizards as a man not to be trifled with.
Hibbert, looking to stand up for his young teammate, trifled with him. Booker responded by hooking off with a left-handed slap that left Hibbert stunned:
… left Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green laughing:
… and left Booker ejected after collecting a pair of technicals, hitting the showers with zero points, three rebounds, two assists, a steal and a smack in just under 20 minutes of work.
Hibbert got a tech, too, which seems like adding insult to facial injury, really. He did, however, get to remain in the game, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds and an assist in 32 minutes of work as the Lakers fell to the Jazz, 117-114, in overtime. Even if his face was still stinging, Hibbert expressed no regret for sticking his nose into his teammate’s affairs, according to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register:
“We play together,” Hibbert said. “I’m not going to speak too much about that play. Like I said, (Randle’s) the face of this team for the future and, one through 15, I’d step up for anybody, anybody in the starting five to the guys at the end of the bench. We play as a team and I have everybody’s back.”
Booker was even more circumspect on the scuffle, according to Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune:
Booker, Utah’s spark plug and muscle off the bench, looked to have dialed up his intensity to midseason form on Sunday as he jawed and battled with Lakers center Roy Hibbert. Booker could be heard shouting at Hibbert from the bench at one point in the game. Then, a while later, Booker and Hibbert exchanged some words as the two got tied up near the basket. Afterward, Booker declined to talk about it much. “I don’t even want to talk about him,” he said. “No words for him.”
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While Hibbert might have caught the business end of the fracas, he seems more than willing to take any blows necessary to protect Randle, whose rookie season was cut short by a broken leg in his first professional game and who received bushels of praise from his veteran teammates after Tuesday’s loss, according to Sam Amick of USA TODAY:
“Julius is an animal,” Lakers center Roy Hibbert said. “He’s the future of this team. He’s a future face of the NBA. That boy can play. The things that he does at his size – getting the ball up the court, dunking. The sky is the limit. I’ve never seen anyone like him.”
Said Metta World Peace, who logged his first game action since his return to the NBA and was his intense, impactful self in 21 minutes: “Julius, he’s a leader. He could lead us into the playoffs, easy. I saw him lead the team (on Tuesday night). …He was a young, 19-year-old leader.
“If he listens, which he does, we can push him to lead. He has a chance to really play like that and do a lot of other athletic things. Finish, dunk, and all that stuff, which is going to be amazing – points and rebounds, assists, steals, and feed off of it. He did that (against the Jazz), he took the ball from the guy and went coast to coast (for a dunk). I was like, ‘Wow.’ That’s how (the San Antonio Spurs’) Kawhi Leonard is, he’s both ends. He does the energy stuff.”
Booker, on the other hand, could find himself in a bit of hot water with the league for his exuberant expression of “energy stuff.”
This seems like way too much anger to have on a trip to Hawaii.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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