Carmelo Anthony was ejected with bizarre flagrant-2 foul against Blazers

Carmelo Anthony didn’t make it to the final horn in the Thunder’s 103-99 loss to the Trail Blazers. Instead, he was ejected from the game in the middle of the third quarter on a drive that shifted from what seemed to be an and-one from Anthony to a flagrant-2 foul committed by him.

To the naked eye, this looked like a normal drive from Anthony going at Jusuf Nurkic who was waiting under the rim.

But Anthony inadvertently hit Nurkic in the face with an elbow, and that contact was ruled as a flagrant-2 foul on Anthony putting him out of the game.

Now that’s something that you don’t see every day. Typically, when trying to determine who initiated contact between an offensive and defensive player the benefit of the doubt is normally given to the offensive player. But it didn’t seem to be on this play, despite the contact seemingly being typical.

Official crew chief Rodney Mott addressed the scenario with a pool reporter after the game. After reviewing the foul, the game officials determined that Anthony’s move was “unnatural” and “excessive” which made it a flagrant-2.

The difference between a flagrant-1 and flagrant-2 foul is intent. Flagrant-1 fouls deal with excessive and unnatural contact, but what upgrades the foul to a flagrant-2 is whether the player intended to harm his opponent.

That’s a very murky and gray area to tread in. It’s hard to just intent in the heat of the moment when things are happening so fast. But it seems, for Anthony, officials determined that he meant to hit Nurkic in the face with his elbow.

Obviously losing a key player for a game is never a great thing — especially when you lose such a close one. But after the game, Thunder players and coaches were wondering why the play wasn’t a basket plus a foul for Anthony. Billy Donovan said it’s something the “league is going to have to deal with.”

“Three guys were on the court, and they called an and-one. Then he’s thrown out of the game?” Donovan said.

Russell Westbrook had some very not-safe-for-work things to say about the call.

“It’s a bunch of bulls*** in my opinion. They don’t referee the same way all the time. They pick and choose when they want to do it, which is unfair in my opinion,” Westbrook said. “I can see its blatant s*** that’s not getting looked at, in my opinion.”

Westbrook was hit in the face earlier in the game by Noah Vonleh but there was no call or review on the play. The Thunder were forced to call a timeout.

As far as Anthony’s play goes, Paul George said he “didn’t think they could do that.” He was referring to the call to switch an and-one into a flagrant foul committed on the player who officials said was initially fouled.

George went on to add that he thought the officials were “overturned” by the boos of the crowd. After Nurkic backed away from the play, there were boos coming from around the arena in reaction to the call. Once the play was under review, they grew even louder.

Anthony felt the same way, but said he expects the league to “do what’s right” in reviewing the call and making a decision on whether to downgrade the call.

“I thought it was the wrong call to make, to be honest with you, but just take it,” Anthony said. “There’s no need to overreact to it ... I just hope that the league looks at it and do the right thing about it.”

The Thunder are certainly going to lobby for a downgrade and the league could very well grant them one. The game might be over, but Anthony is still subject to a potential fine of up to $50,000 or a possible suspension from the league — maybe even both.

We’ve seen flagrant-2 fouls downgraded before. Isaiah Thomas had a flagrant foul on Justise Winslow downgraded last season and avoided a potential suspension in the middle of the year. That foul seemed to be much worse than this one.

These are looked at on a case-by-case basis, though, so comparing the fouls doesn’t really help. Anthony doesn’t have a recent malicious history with the league and isn’t often caught in this situation.

It might not matter, though, if the league feels like it has a solid enough case. We’ll find out what Anthony’s fate is soon enough.