Okay, so: Come for Amir Johnson throwing his mouthpiece at the ref in the first 30 seconds of the video below, but stay for the incident that started all this, at the 50-second mark in the video below.
VIDEO: The Raptors’ Amir Johnson throws his mouthpiece at a ref
It’s been a rough year for the Raptors. Things got a little worse Raptors forward Amir Johnson Monday night, thanks to a battle of tug-of-war, an ejection, and a mouthpiece.
Andy Lyons
To recap the second incident: The ref grabs the rebound, Johnson tries to grab onto the ball, and then they both just sort of fight over it and play tug of war for five or six seconds. Which ... What exactly was the idea there? How did Amir Johnson see that ending?
In any case, a quietly insane, impromptu rebounding battle with a ref is a fantastic way to spice up an otherwise awful Raptors-Blazers game, so we’re not mad.
Whenever Johnson gets suspended in the next few days, you will hear a lot of “He threw his mouthpiece at an official!” stories, but can we all agree to focus on the “he refused to let the ref have the basketball” part of things? Because that was a great, random moment in regular season in NBA basketball, and far more insane than the mouthpiece-throwing.
Go Raptors!
