Devin Booker and Gorgui Dieng were both ejected and on their way to a locker room fight Tuesday night in one of the most bizarre and hilarious incidents of the season.
Gorgui Dieng told Devin Booker to fight him in the hallway and Booker actually tried to follow him
Welp.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
It started innocuously enough. Booker was stripped of the ball with just over five minutes left in the third quarter and Dieng seemingly accidentally elbowed him while retrieving it. Booker took issue, and the two exchanged words and met on the court with Dieng getting up in Booker’s face before Booker threw a ... well, I’m not entirely sure what this is.
It’s part punch, part slap, and part palm-thrust — but whatever it was, Dieng was upset. Referees reviewed the incident and issued a technical on each player, ejecting both of them.
On the way out, Dieng told Booker to meet him in the tunnel, and Booker was ready to oblige. It escalated to the point where security had to do its best to hold him back, but to no avail.
The poor security guard looks like he’s wakeboarding and Booker is the boat.
Despite their best efforts, the pair were never able to find each other.
After the game, Booker wouldn’t discuss the incident, while Dieng wanted an explanation why he was ejected.
“Technical foul, OK that’s fine, but an ejection? I want to know why,” he said. “I know if you get two techs you get ejected, but I got one tech. And I didn’t throw a punch. He’s the one who tried to hit me, right? And I got ejected. I would like to know why.”
Dieng also tried to play off the invitation to meet him in the locker room as merely an opportunity to exchange jerseys, which is incredible.
The Suns and Timberwolves won’t play again this season, so there’s plenty of time for this beef to simmer. We’ll need to wait and see if it carries over into 2019-20.
