Danilo Gallinari will miss the remainder of the Eurobasket tournament after he injured his hand over the weekend, and the Los Angeles Clippers forward has since apologized for the way the injury occurred.
Gallinari, who was playing for the Italian national team, hurt his right thumb when he punched an opposing player on Sunday. The 28-year-old spoke with La Gazzetta dello Sport and expressed regret over the incident, though he did note that the Netherlands was playing dirty.
“I am very sorry for so many reasons. First because I am not part anymore of the Italian NT team and for the way I left it,” Gallinari said, as translated by Sportando. “Italian NT is like a second family to me and I feel really bad. I reacted after being elbowed. My reaction must be condemned but I got an elbow and we’ll never know if it was on purpose or not. The problem is that the elbows were flying high for a while during the game and when we were shooting they put their feet under us with the risk of getting hurt.
“In a short way, they were not playing clean. The game looked more as a fight. With this, I am not seeking an alibi, my reaction is inexcusable. I apologize to my teammates, to the whole National Team and also to (Jito) Kok. I lost my control, never happened before and never have to happen again.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that Gallinari will get an official diagnosis from Clippers team doctors this week but is not expected to need surgery.
Here’s a video of the play where Gallinari hit Dutch forward Jito Kok in the face:
Danilo Gallinari has yet to play with Blake Griffin but just went full Blake in an exhibition game. Clipps Clippin' pic.twitter.com/wjLn1fK931
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) July 30, 2017
We have seen athletes injure themselves doing some incredibly stupid things, but this type of injury has to be particularly frustrating for the Clippers.
