NBA All-Star Khris Middleton was ejected from Thursday’s game between his Milwaukee Bucks the Brooklyn Nets for a foul on Bruce Brown.
With nobody in front of him, Brown was driving for a seemingly uncontested layup or dunk. When he left his feet, Middleton — who had been tracking Brown from behind — fouled him. Brown took a scary fall to the ground.
Khris Middleton was ejected after this foul. pic.twitter.com/WblBFZEdwR
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 1, 2022
Middleton was eventually ejected from the game with a Flagrant 2.
The ejection was controversial. Unlike Austin Rivers’ ejection on Wednesday following a phantom elbow to Lance Stephenson, there was contact. But many watching on Twitter felt that the play looked worse for Middleton than it actually was.
Ridiculous. Khris wasn't trying to hurt Brown and immediately went to check on him. This was a soft foul in the 1980's #NBA. https://t.co/5JTNbx15bB
— SportsBusinessRadio (@SBRadio) April 1, 2022
Flagrant Foul ONE. That's The Tweet. https://t.co/gPaeiK6ICE
— Jose Lorenzo 👑🏀 (@LorenzoMuli) April 1, 2022
This should not have resulted in an ejection. Brown slowed up trying to draw a foul. Soft, @NBA. 🚮 https://t.co/pwP6XQzEB3
— ♛ (@SackUp_Sports) April 1, 2022
Bruce Brown slowed down to foul hunt, why was he mad lol https://t.co/G5Pp30q8MX
— Bango Burner 🦌 (@BangoBurner_) April 1, 2022
So lame. Middleton got ejected for hustling
— Marcus Thompson II (@ThompsonScribe) April 1, 2022
Khris Middleton got ejected ???? the game we all love is ruined
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) April 1, 2022
That wasn’t necessarily a unanimous opinion, though. Other people who were watching the game felt that Brown was lucky to not be seriously hurt on the play and that the ejection was well deserved.
He could’ve broke his arm like this. https://t.co/h0UIY0gYbR
— JuJu (@JuJu_Da_Gamer) April 1, 2022
This could’ve ended bad. Not mad he got ejected for that https://t.co/qiY0o0y7If
— Dri* (@Drikush) April 1, 2022
https://twitter.com/FFaxie/status/1509708069214818316
This was dirty asl https://t.co/xpiMJa0Qzl
— 🐙 (@1kyland) April 1, 2022
There’s no doubt that the foul looked bad and Brown could have been badly hurt. That said, he was also clearly slowing himself down, a likely sign that he was trying to draw contact. Given how fast Middleton was going and that Brown was in the air, a nasty fall was unavoidable once contact was made.
So, it’s unlikely that Middleton was trying to hurt Brown here. But given the space between them, he also had time to avoid the contact.
One thing is for sure. If these two teams meet in the postseason, this play will be remembered.
Even without Middleton for the remainder of the game, the Bucks came away with a 120-119 win in overtime.
[Photo Credit: TNT]
